Brown Symposium

I thought that the topic for this year’s Brown Symposium was pretty interesting. Sadly, the conference’s bite was not as big as it’s bark. The second conference was so so so boring. While the idea of how God affects your brain was an interesting proposition, the research presented was lacking in significance, in my opinion, and the speaker was, to say the least, incredibly monotonous. The speaker presented images of a brain “on” God, and “off” God, and showed the changes that occurred. The changes were minimal to my eye at least, and the hidden brain the speaker pointed out in “The Creation of Adam” did not sway me. Though the idea of the evidence presented was compelling, I didn’t really see the purpose of deducing how God affects the brain. Sure, the idea of a positive God over a negative one may be beneficial for mental happiness, but one isn’t going to adapt something as personal as religion to a scientific study. I don’t think that science has any place in advising people what or what not to believe. It’s an interesting study, but fairly invasive into one of the most personal aspects of a person’s life. Most people’s definition of their religion, or spirituality, is not something that can fit neatly into predetermined categories that then can be measured according to their positive or negative effects. Additionally, one of the best parts of a religion or spirituality is its mystery. By reducing the positive feeling that stems from religion to merely a chemical reaction in the brain, the part of religion that encourages faith, and through that everything else, is stymied.

The first lecture was abvit more interesting; it revolved around the many faces of God. I was astounded by the statistic that 88% of people believe in some God. Our country has always been religiously influenced, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. The breakdown of that number into smaller categories of specific religions would probably highlight the strong Christian influences in our country.            

Overall, I thought the conference didn’t deliver, but they were also working with a very difficult topic. Reconciling religion and science has been a challenge of people for centuries, and I don’t think there will ever be a way to fully integrate the two, nor would I want too much science interfering in my spirituality. 

Tuesdays with Morrie

I really enjoyed Tuesdays with Morrie. So much so that I think that I am going to buy it when the funds become available. I thought the whole book was excellent, from plot to dialogue, and although he is not the greatest writer for anything other than sports apparently, I enjoyed his writing. I think my favorite parts of the book were the aphorisms of Morrie, and the underlying tale of redemption that the author embarks upon, when he decides to visit Morrie. I did think it was sad that he only decided to visit because of the strike, but I feel that by the end of the story, he grew because of Morrie, and was as grateful to a person as one can be.

I think that I liked Morrie so much because many of his views reflect what I strive for, but he is far more elegant than I in expressing them. I loved that he said that money is way overrated; his diatribe against money is really indicative, I feel, of many of the tensions in our society that revolve around money, and also how money and the accumulation of crap has become one of the bedrock principles of our society. This in itself is sad, but Morrie truly highlights what is omitted from society, and the life of an individual, because of money and the idea of stuff. Trying to fill their lives with all these material things, and titles, and perceived esteem distracts people, but in the final analysis, what do they have? Morrie hits the nail on the head when he grapples with the idea of love; the most important thing a person can do in their life is really love someone or someones, and create a community of love around them. This may sound a little trite, and perhaps I’m a bit of a hippy, but I don’t think it gets said enough in our world. Love constantly takes the backseat to money, power, and prestige, but the only one of those things that is eternal is love. One of my favorite quotes (sorry to sound like a total hippy) is by Jimi Hendrix- “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” There is such an eternal and undeniable truth in this message, and I think that is why I enjoyed this book so much.

 Not only does Morrie preach about the power and importance of love, he lives it with every breath or, towards the end of his life, every cough he takes. His family, friends, colleagues were all there constantly, to offer anything Morrie needed, and usually more love went out to them from Morrie than anything else. Morrie’s thesis, if he had one, would be when he says “The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” Morrie loves those around him, but he also loves himself, which is essential, by finding something truly important to invest his life in; nothing is more important than that, and the shortest distance between an unhappy meaningless existence, and one full of wonder and meaning is through loving and helping others. This is what Morrie believes, and what I believe, and his words are inspirational not only in their message, but more importantly personally, for how they strengthen my beliefs which are similar, and often overlooked in our society.