Some New Year's resolutions for 2013:
(1) Use my month of monastic life (while Susan is in Arizona with her parents and I am teaching a January Interim class at Calvin) to organize books and papers and closets, give away books we will never read and CD's we will never listen to, and other clutter.
(2) Walk on the beach with Bo every day that I am at home during daylight hours. (So far, that's just one of the four days since I arrived home from spending Christmas in Florida and New Year's in Texas.)
(3) Get out on my skis, if we ever get any snow.
(4) While increasing energy output in the ways just mentioned, limit energy input with a view to diminishing my equatorial circumference by a couple of inches and my corporeal substance by about 10 percent (this to be accomplished by summer).
(5) Create a new blog, whose title reflects the book discussion group that exists only in my imagination, and there keep a record of my reading, viewing, and reflection on books and films, together with other personal notes from time to time.
I realize that this blog will be read mostly by me, some months or years down the road, and if my expectations are exceeded and the number of readers soars into, say, two figures, I will be delighted.
Consider this a small subversive response to the hegemony of Twitter and Facebook and the like, which are misleading termed "social media" as if they promoted sociality and thoughtful conversation. A better term would be "tools for narcissists with short attention spans." I will continue to visit Facebook from time to time, where I can find photos and videos of the cutest two-year-old on the planet. But thinking about this blog, on my beach walk with Bo today, brought me to the realization of why I dislike and distrust those media. My vocation is to be a philosopher and a philosophy teacher, and the founding assumption of that field is that careful and systematic thought matters profoundly in a satisfying life, and that the wisdom of those who pursued philosophy centuries or millenia ago still matters to us today. The founding assumption of Facebook and Twitter is that brevity and wit are the highest values and that all of one's thoughts become useless after a few days.
Having passed the threshold of 62 half a year ago, I am ready to assume the mantle of a dyspeptic old grouch. But the purpose of this blog will be reflections on good books and good films, not whining.
(1) Use my month of monastic life (while Susan is in Arizona with her parents and I am teaching a January Interim class at Calvin) to organize books and papers and closets, give away books we will never read and CD's we will never listen to, and other clutter.
(2) Walk on the beach with Bo every day that I am at home during daylight hours. (So far, that's just one of the four days since I arrived home from spending Christmas in Florida and New Year's in Texas.)
(3) Get out on my skis, if we ever get any snow.
(4) While increasing energy output in the ways just mentioned, limit energy input with a view to diminishing my equatorial circumference by a couple of inches and my corporeal substance by about 10 percent (this to be accomplished by summer).
(5) Create a new blog, whose title reflects the book discussion group that exists only in my imagination, and there keep a record of my reading, viewing, and reflection on books and films, together with other personal notes from time to time.
I realize that this blog will be read mostly by me, some months or years down the road, and if my expectations are exceeded and the number of readers soars into, say, two figures, I will be delighted.
Consider this a small subversive response to the hegemony of Twitter and Facebook and the like, which are misleading termed "social media" as if they promoted sociality and thoughtful conversation. A better term would be "tools for narcissists with short attention spans." I will continue to visit Facebook from time to time, where I can find photos and videos of the cutest two-year-old on the planet. But thinking about this blog, on my beach walk with Bo today, brought me to the realization of why I dislike and distrust those media. My vocation is to be a philosopher and a philosophy teacher, and the founding assumption of that field is that careful and systematic thought matters profoundly in a satisfying life, and that the wisdom of those who pursued philosophy centuries or millenia ago still matters to us today. The founding assumption of Facebook and Twitter is that brevity and wit are the highest values and that all of one's thoughts become useless after a few days.
Having passed the threshold of 62 half a year ago, I am ready to assume the mantle of a dyspeptic old grouch. But the purpose of this blog will be reflections on good books and good films, not whining.
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