Teaching high school these days, I am often reminded of Maximus from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, imploring the crowd, “Are you not entertained?” I scan my students’ bored, simultaneously hopeful faces, and I want to tell them: as you turn older, your lives will become both more boring, but paradoxically more pleasurable; that’s if you’re lucky!… Continue reading “Are you not entertained?”: boredom, silence, age, and youth
Tag: joy
Facing sadness
The meaning of life at twenty-nine years
Like everyone, I like to do the things I enjoy most on my birthday. And for me, that has often been a combination of writing/reflection, solitude, hiking, and sharing with community. Today, I will be spending at least part of the day walking around my graduate school campus, making a spiritual goodbye to the place… Continue reading The meaning of life at twenty-nine years
