pura vida

It was great talking to you the other night.

I thought I would write a small note here for you. If you do happen to take a glance at my blog, let me know by responding to this post or any of the other publishings I have submitted. You can do this easily by selecting comments located at the bottom of the post. This gives you the ability to read other post people have made and also to scrole down and make your own comments. there is text box you can write in and then select say it… or something like that.

Ess came home from the hospital yesterday and said that the Doctor could not figure out how efaced she was because “the baby’s head was in the way”. She said that she will probably make it to the next appointment next wednesday but it won’t be much longer then that. It could be that Ess is having the baby as I am writing this at school. Now thats a horrible thought. I would never live that down.

Rebecka sent me a picture of Tamarack and I told her I think he is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen. Probably because he doesn’t look anything like an infant. He has a ton of hair. pretty exciting times. Well I have to get to class.

Ben

Benjamin Berry
Life Journey

McNamara and Dewey Comparison

For Dewey, war is the result of social customs and institutions. He writes that “History does not prove the inevitability of war, but it does prove that customs and institutions which organize native powers into certain patterns in politics and economics will also generate the war-pattern” (Dewey 115). In other words, Dewey feels that the way people develop through institutions and the norms of society will dictate the way war is viewed. McNamara’s lessons from “The Fog of War” develop this thought by delineating some of the principles he has lived by and the lessons he has learned. McNamara defines what some of the crucial considerations should be before entering a war or during a war. In essence, the lessons McNamara refers to and the institutions and norms Dewey refers to go to the heart of the cause for war; namely, that the policies a nation adopts concerning foreign affairs are directly related to the norms society establishes and the power of institutions upon those norms.
McNamara presents some great lessons to consider. While all of the lessons he shared in the video are profound, there are two specifically that caught my attention. The first is that “believing and seeing are both often wrong” (McNamara Lesson 7). There are few people I have met that regard seeing as an act of believing. This is essentially what I think he is getting at since what one sees is often just as untrustworthy as what one believes. I have never underestimated that the value of believing and guarding ones beliefs with careful consideration are fundamental aspects of life. The second lesson that captured my attention was that “In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil” (McNamara Lesson 9). This lesson was hard for me to swallow. I wonder to what extent this is true and what implications it has on society if this form of reasoning is accepted. My intuition leads me to believe that this lesson should be more focused on developing wisdom rather than engaging in evil. If we have a greater knowledge of how to respond to specific circumstances we might find that doing good to those who harm us might be a more effective alternative.

Dewey, John. Human Nature And Conduct. Henry Holt And Company. New York, New
York 1922.

Benjamin Berry
Life Journey
11/7/2006

Uselessness

The most profound element of life is its purpose. Each individual’s relatively short existence on earth is guided by their view of purpose. The human life is characterized by the need to act in order to accomplish some goal, and the direction of one’s life is intrinsically linked to that drive. Since the purpose of one’s life is paramount in importance, it is not surprising that individuals often feel inept and burdened as they struggle to define their purpose. For them, a sense of uselessness depicts their very essence as they fail to engage the world in a way they feel is beneficial.
It is ironic that the pains we endure to secure our purpose are often what inhibit us from ever attaining them. Jane Addams refers to this in her book Twenty Years At Hull-House as the “Snare of Preparation”. It is her contention that preparation, while useful for the increase of knowledge on a subject matter, has little effect on one’s ability to apply knowledge to reality or to respond to needs in this world. In response to the poor conditions in East London and the community’s response to it, Addams writes, “This is what we were all doing, lumbering our minds with literature that only served to cloud the really vital situation spread before our eyes” (Addams 70). Thoreau suggested a similar idea when he claimed that universities would serve their purpose better if they were to educate students through the students’ application of knowledge rather than through lecture and books. Thus, a crucial element in understanding one’s purpose is to be alert to one’s surroundings and the importance of acting on the world rather than only observing it.
Too much preparation is not the only factor that often tends to blur one’s sense of purpose. Inaction or laziness is often a vice that traps the individual in a quagmire or self-pity and uselessness. This is usually the result of not having a vision. Having a vision is not necessarily knowing one’s purpose but rather knowing the general direction and discovering the purpose on the way. All too often, however, many find themselves driven by uncertainty and doubt rather than vision. I remember when I had just graduated high school and I did not know what I wanted to do with my life. I was struggling with who I was and what I wanted to become. For about four years I followed the paths of least resistance. If an opportunity came along, I would take it. While some of these experiences were beneficial, I never felt fulfilled because I did not have a vision of who I wanted to be. This was a time of inactivity. I had nothing important to live for and nothing to fight for. As a result I felt disconnected and lonely.
Vision can lead one to purpose only to discover that the purpose found is fleeting. It is important to observe the world and reevaluate the relevancy of one’s purpose. Addams refers to the days when she was going through medical school. She had a vision of what she wanted to be. Yet, as she dedicated her life to that vision, she discovered that the purpose she found was not as relevant to the world she lived in as her new vision. She writes that “…there were other genuine reasons for living among the poor than that of practicing medicine upon them, and my brief foray into the profession was never resumed” (Addams 66). Addams found a new purpose that surmounted her former purpose. It was a purpose for greater, long lasting change.
An individual’s purpose is invariable unique. In a general sense, there might be one common purpose for humanity, but working out that purpose in an applicable way, for each individual, result in a myriad of different out workings. It is subject to an individual’s talents, concerns, interests, and temperament. It is subject to the aspects of individuality that are present in us all. The individual must then journey to find their purpose. It is not merely attentiveness to duty that constitutes a journey, but rather a conscious effort in evaluating what one’s purpose truly is. Unfortunately, in the United States the motto is “stay busy”. Staying busy can actually be a thwart to realizing one’s purpose. This is true because the individual has little time for introspection and consideration. A common example of this is Christmas. Many people get caught up in having the best party, making the best food, and giving the best presents that they loose sight of actually spending quality time with their families. As with Christmas, the purpose of life often gets lost in the commotion and issues that really matter are lost to the individual.
Thus, the journey for purpose is of principal importance for the individual. It is a journey that involves preparation not at the expense of application, action with careful consideration of vision, and vision not withstanding revision. Its importance is crucial to the development of the individual. Every step one takes on the journey towards purpose is progress towards understanding oneself and denying uselessness.

Addams, Jane. Twenty Years AT Hull House. The Macmillan Company. New York, New
York 1951.

Benjamin Berry
Life Journey
10/17/2006

Social Responsibility

The earth is a stage where social interactions set the plot of every endearing moment or devastating tragedy. A word of encouragement or a spout of spite is doubtless the catalyst for irrevocable benefits or harms. It is the correlation of deeds of commission and omission with their natural consequences in relation to others that compel individuals to develop a conceptualization of social responsibility.
The first most important element in regards to social responsibility is that social interaction and their consequences are not optional. They are inextricable aspects of life; “it is not an ethical ‘ought’ that conduct should be social. It is social, whether bad or good” (Dewey 17). Each day individuals awake to commit to a set of intellectual habits. These include such activities as showering, eating breakfast, and driving to work. What is often not on their minds is how each of those actions affects the lives of others indirectly. Taking a shower diminishes water supply, eating breakfast provides work for breakfast food producers, and good driving skills prevent accidents. Each individual is then accountable to their social interactions with others even if they do not interact with others directly.
Recognizing that social interactions are a fact of life is not the only important aspect in regards to social responsibility. The second most important element is that individuals must develop a clear understanding of what constitutes a moral action. It is easy to recognize that individuals are responsible for the actions they commit. What is not always easy to come to a consensus on is what actions are moral. Dewey suggests that actions are a result of habit and that one’s social environment influences the individual’s habit. For him, “The moral problem is that of modifying the factors that now influence future results” (Dewey 19). The way a child was treated when they were young might predicate how they behave when they are older. This idea that the result of an action determines whether it is moral is important and valid. Yet, it must be recognized that this seemingly universal moral code is always shaded by the context of what is “good” to each community based upon various belief systems. Still, the concept that how one’s actions shape the actions of others is an important moral consideration in determining what is moral.
Similarly, it is important not only for the individual to recognize what deeds of commission are moral in regards to social responsibility, but also what deeds of omission are moral. Dewey suggests, “Non-resistance to evil which takes the form of paying no attention to it is a way of promoting it” (17). While an individual may not be actively taking part in a crime, they may be doing so passively by not reporting the crime or by not taking some other reactionary measure in response to the crime. Deeds of omission are even more difficult to come to consensus on in terms of whether they are moral or not. This is true because while one can actually observe the result of a deed of commission it is not possible to do so with deeds of omission. It is only conjecture to state what would have happened if the individual had acted. While there may be no real formula for determining which of these types of deeds are moral, it is important for the individual to recognize that deeds of omission can be immoral. It is important to take them into account when developing an understanding of social responsibility.
Finally, the last element that is essential to an understanding of social responsibility is that adults live within the context of their community by choice. This is a form of commitment. When an individual takes part in a group, family, or community there is an aspect of commitment involved. An individual can choose to leave a community but by default they are committing to the environment they are moving to. To this extent, morality might be relativistic. When individuals marry there are moral rules that apply to them that did not apply previously. These may include rules such as no flirting, never leave the toilet seat up, and no eating on the couch. Every circumstance varies individually. This suggests that individuals are only influenced by their environment as much as they choose to participate in it. However, not committing to any environment is not a possibility in as much as the person remains living.
For me as a Christian, developing an understanding of social responsibility is important. This is what is meant by the familiar phrase of living in the world but not of it. While Christians must commit to the environment in which they live, they also commit to an environment not of this world. There is a moral obligation for them as much as anyone to abide by cultural precedents. Yet, in as much as those precedents violate their higher commitment, they must follow their higher moral value.
The essence of morality in terms of social responsibility is that individuals recognize that everyone participates in some form of social interaction and therefore hold some responsibility for their actions. It is a further recognition that it is not only what we do but what we don’t do that can benefit or harm others. Beyond this, it is the recognition that social responsibility means that living within a community is intrinsically linked to a commitment to it.

Dewey, John. Human Nature And Conduct. Henry Holt And Company. New York, New
York 1922.

Benjamin Berry
Life Journey
GVSU
10/3/2006

Development of Morality

Morality has and continues to be an issue of great contention in the world at large and within small communities. It is what has caused division within social groups to the extent that brothers have fought against brothers defending their beliefs of right and wrong. This is true not because morality causes division, but because the individual’s knowledge of the world in regards to social interaction is finite. Thus, the development of one’s own understanding of what is moral is contingent upon what they believe (faith). To this rule, there is no exception. Even those who do not believe in morality do so upon a premise based on faith. In my personal pursuit of truth, I have found that I must depend upon a higher authority than my personal intuition or experience for a foundation to build off of if I am to ever align myself with a more transcending moral code than personal appeal.
How one defines morality is formed around the authority they accept (themselves, religion, government, ideologies, etc.). This begins at the early stages of life as individuals are driven by what they need as a reference for moral authority. Milton Ford suggests in Life Journey that in regard to infancy “We reach out to another person or persons for what comforts us and thus form the first relationships of our lives” (37). It is not a surprise that children view their parents as their guide to moral truths since they recognize them as their authority. This is a result of parents fulfilling a child’s most immediate necessities. However, as children develop and change through progressive stages they come to realize that moral authority entitles more than just providing for another’s needs.
The importance of consciously choosing one’s moral authority comes at different times in life for every person. Still, it is a choice that everyone makes. What each individual chooses to believe concerning their professed moral authority varies almost infinitesimally; however, in terms of broad categorizations of moral authority, there are many that are widely agreed upon and several that are prevalent. Some of these include moral relativism, science, and religion.
Henry David Thoreau, in his book Walden, suggests a form of moral relativism when he contends that what is “necessary of life” is to keep the fire burning within the human being. To this end, he suggests that food and shelter are absolutely essential to keep the warmth within man (Thoreau, 11). Beyond this, Thoreau holds that every other “necessity” is guarded by philosophy; “…to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust” (12-13). Thus, Thoreau’s moral authority is moral relativism under the guise of each individual being driven by personal, yet honest principles.
However wonderful and quaint a world like this might seem in the imagination of Thoreau, reality seems to suggest that everyone living by their own philosophy would result in a world of chaos. This is true because in moral relativism each individual is guarded by their own ideas of what is good. Much of what some individuals think is good is in fact bad for society.
In Contrast to Thoreau, John Dewey presents his theory on moral authority. In essence he suggests that the scientific theory can help individuals discover morality. His theory is that “…the chief good of man is good will”(43). He claims that motive and deed cannot be separated as two concepts independent of one another because one is the necessary condition of the other (Dewey, 43). Therefore, it is the opinion of those who choose science as the moral authority that through enough study and observation of effects and motives one can determine what is moral.
While Dewey is not a moral relativist his theory does suggest that morality changes in conjunction with the environment. While I do not have all of my beliefs worked out concerning morality, I definitely choose God and his example through Jesus as my moral authority. I believe that God acts directly in accordance with his nature. Thus, God is bound by who he is intrinsically and not by moral law outside of himself or by arbitrary rules which do not coincide with his nature. In essence, God has to do what is right and is not capable of doing wrong. As a result, I cannot adhere to the moral authorities presented by Thoreau or Dewey because, although they are very different, they both work off of the same premise that man is good enough to determine what is and is not moral in and of themselves.
I do not believe that any person on this earth is absolutely moral. This would suggest not only infinite knowledge, but also adherence to perfect wisdom and perfect moral action. Still, I believe that Christ being God in the flesh did exemplify perfect morality to humanity. He also gave humanity an option to receive what they cannot obtain. That is, each person has the option to receive forgiveness making them completely moral being in the eyes of God. Simply put, God is the one constant in a world that is constantly changing.

Dewey, John. Human Nature And Conduct. Henry Holt And Company. New York, New
York 1922.

Ford, Milton E. Life Journey: Literature and the Search for Meaning in the Stages of
Life. Greystone Estates Book. Grand Rapids, Michigan 2001.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Beacon Press. Boston, Massachusetts 1997