Fighting the Good Fight

 

I often find myself in a cycle when it comes to sharing political content online. Initially, I feel strongly compelled to post about issues I care deeply about and engage in the discussions. However, after a while, my own posts can become overwhelming and a source of anxiety due to the often divisive and upsetting nature of online political discourse. 

This leads me to eventually delete those very posts. It's crucial to understand that this isn't because my convictions have weakened or because I'm afraid to express my political views – quite the opposite. My desire to share comes from a genuine place of wanting to make my voice heard. However, I've also made a conscious decision to curate my social media into a space that offers a counter-narrative to the negativity and anger that can easily dominate online interactions. 

The world can feel saturated with hurtful news and conflict, and my hope is that my corner of the internet can be a place where light, hope, refreshment, and love can prevail. I firmly believe in 'fighting the good fight' and staying engaged with important issues, but for me, that fight looks less like constant public debate on my personal feed and more like actively nurturing a positive environment, both for my own well-being and for those who connect with me here. It's about contributing to the good in a different way, by offering a space for respite and encouragement amidst the often turbulent online landscape.

Crucially, I want to emphasize that I hold absolutely no judgment for those who choose to engage with political issues online in a more direct or consistent manner. I understand and respect that there are many valid and necessary ways to advocate for change and make one's voice heard. My approach is simply what feels most sustainable and beneficial for my own mental well-being and the kind of online space I personally wish to cultivate. We are all navigating this complex world and the digital landscape in our own ways, and I believe that diverse approaches to engagement are ultimately valuable.

Love,

+Brian

Humanities: A Love Affair Begins

Brian Ernest Brown 1986

This blog has been stirring around in my mind and heart for a long time it would seem and in reflection, my love of the humanities has forever been a part of my life I suppose. However, it came into clear focus in my high school humanities class taught by Mr. William "Bucky" Bowman my junior year.

For the most part, I consider my high school years to be a waste of valuable time and something I simply endured because I was forced to.  Had I known then, what I know now, I would have dropped out and taken my GED and jumped straightaway into college.

Ah, but as the saying goes: too soon we get old and too late we get smart.

There were, from time to time, glimmers of light and life beyond those parochial walls and I count my humanities class among them.  Two other endearing and life changing classes were to be found in my four years of Latin and two years of  journalism.

The year was 1986 and my humanities class was a pilot program that had just been introduced to the R12 high school curriculum in Springfield Missouri by Mr. Bowman who worked on the school board as well as taught within the system.  I was giddy to be part of the pilot program at Glendale.

That class opened me to the world in a new way.  It helped to begin my cognitive development in a way that encouraged me to see the interconnectedness of all things, but particularly in regard to the human experience and its development through philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language.

I gained a fuller appreciation of this cognitive awareness when I attended college and more especially, later in seminary.  However, it all started in that little classroom with a teacher that would admonish me, in my yearbook, to work harder in college than I did in high school.

While I have always been an ardent student I have not always been the best student. Mr. Bowman called me dingy but I prefer to think of myself as differentially distracted.

One of the things that struck me most from that humanities class happened on the very first day.  It was my exposure to a quote, which I use on the header of this blog, attributed to Publius Terentius Afer, more commonly known as Terence, a Roman playwright who lived around 170 BC.  It was inside the front cover of our textbook.

"homo sum humani nihil a me alienum puto" ~ "i am human i consider nothing human alien unto me"

I latched onto that quote like a drowning man latches onto a life-preserver.  I wrote it down on a little piece of paper that I used as a bookmark for many, many years.  In fact, it wasn't until this last fall that I finally consigned that little scrap of history to a burn pile in an effort to simplify my life and and to embrace minimalism but that's a story for another time...

That one line quote represented to me then and represents to me now how I saw and continue to see myself.  It continues to guide and inform much of my study, outlook, and life.

As a result, I consider myself a Christian humanist of sorts.  In the world of the Christian Church I would be considered a bit of a heretic suffering from Pelagianism, a heresy named after a Celtic monk, Pelagius aka St. Morgan.

If you'd like to learn more about Pelagius, please follow this link.

In short St. Morgan embraced, as do I, a particular view of creation that focuses on the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will but that too is a story for another time...