Once again we met last night at the Agora in Geneva.  I use the term as a metaphor for a public meeting space, the Barnes & Noble at Geneva Commons.  As in Socrates day a circle of us gathered to ask questions which have no final answer, the enigmas that have and will follow us for the rest of our lives.  The ancient Agora was the marketplace below the Acropolis which housed the magnificent gold and ivory statue of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens.

What better place for a philosophical exchange of considered opinion?   Barnes & Noble, a middleman seller of books, afforded us a meeting space to question the very foundations of the life-which-we-hold-in-common in early years of the 21st century.

The inquiry advanced for consideration: if you had opportunity to give a TED talk, what would the topic be? If you had eighteen minutes what would you say?  Some of the topics spoken of as important to the participants in our circle, male and female, ages from mid-thirties to oldsters were…

1.  “Do you matter?” — a topic especially apt nowadays for those in the student years, the teens and 20 somethings.
2. “The Cognitive Pandemic” — a consideration of the diminishing ability for critical evaluation of news and all manner of electronic media, advertising, that we all absorb.
3. “What Act of Kindness will you perform today?”  I liked this topic for it’s simplicity.
4. “Stepping Out of the Victim, Persecutor, Rescuer Triangle.”  This topic was offered by an experienced therapist.
5. “The Value of Telling Your Story”  Do not we discount the unique and valuable path that our life has taken?
6. “Liberty” 
7. “How do we learn when to speak, and when to be silent?”  We live in a clamorous age.  So many blogs, shouting members of congress, tweeting presidents — is anyone listening?
8. “What are the connections between theology and our laws which define a civil society?”  How did what Aristotle had to say in his Ethics, migrate to Thomas Aquinas theology, and then into our concept of law?
9. “How observations of the barnyard behavior of chickens present lessons about human nature”
10. “How can a therapeutic consideration of the life-long contradictions of human nature be embedded in early childhood education?”  I personally would have benefited if I could “wind-back time” to have learned such lessons early!
11. “How to integrate silence with day to day projects.” It is customary to have the earbuds in, listening to Spotify, podcasts, when focused on mental work.  How rare/precious are interludes of silence, familiar to our ancestors who lived a simpler life.
12. “If forced to choose, would you rather be deaf or blind?” Research shows that the inability to hear results in excruciating loneliness.  How alone would you feel?

40

SHARES

Share on Facebook

Post on X

Follow us