What's so great about hard things?
Thank you for sharing your stories of hard things you did and overcame!
We live in a culture that aims at alleviating all pain, suffering, and even unpleasantness! Yes! I like that idea!
At the same time, our own experiences of difficulty often become the foundation for becoming something far better than anything we had ever imagined. This view encourages us to keep a vision of where we are going and shift our attention past momentary hurdles and challenges.
I loved Jack's story about how he wanted to do ROTC and he wanted to be on the Duke Varsity Swim Team, and he decided that there was no reason to give up his love for either - he would figure out a way to do both! Because he decided to do that, his attention was focused on how to make that happen. I can't help but think that his love for the two activities provides a certain kind of positive feedback loop.
John said he likes metaphoric thinking. Here is a metaphor for what I think happens when we face and call together the resources to overcome some immediate challenge in pursuit of a larger, long term goal: an isomer! (This is the word I was stumbling on in class. It is from the Greek, isos means "same" and meros means "part".) For the chemist, an isomer is a group of atoms whose molecular parts are the same as another group, but the configuration is different. Isomers are molecules that contain the same set of atoms, but with two different configurations. Both configurations are stable: They are at their lowest energy level. In addition to different yet stable configurations, their energy levels are different! One configuration holds more energy than the other. When you consider Jack's story, doesn't this ring true? Doesn't it seem like the configuration of Jack pursuing both ROTC and Varsity Swim Team is a stable configuration that represents a higher level of energy than Jack pursuing only one, and sad that he had to give the other up? The sum ends up being more that straight addition of the two parts.
The other interesting parallel between isomers at the molecular level and us humans at the macro level is the transition between one configuration and the next. In the words of Erwin Schrödinger (most infamously known for the "Schrödinger's Cat" thought experiment), "The transition from one to the other can only take place over intermediate configurations which have a great energy than either of them." (Schrödinger, What is Life? p. 58) He also points out that isomerism is not the exception, it is the rule.
My conclusion? Congratulations to all of you for stretching to join this Intergenerational Ethics class! If you find it difficult to carve out the time to participate, count it as part of a momentary "intermediate transitional state" of higher energy, that will land you in a transformed and stable place of higher energy!
Thank you for sharing your stories of hard things you did and overcame!
We live in a culture that aims at alleviating all pain, suffering, and even unpleasantness! Yes! I like that idea!
At the same time, our own experiences of difficulty often become the foundation for becoming something far better than anything we had ever imagined. This view encourages us to keep a vision of where we are going and shift our attention past momentary hurdles and challenges.
I loved Jack's story about how he wanted to do ROTC and he wanted to be on the Duke Varsity Swim Team, and he decided that there was no reason to give up his love for either - he would figure out a way to do both! Because he decided to do that, his attention was focused on how to make that happen. I can't help but think that his love for the two activities provides a certain kind of positive feedback loop.
John said he likes metaphoric thinking. Here is a metaphor for what I think happens when we face and call together the resources to overcome some immediate challenge in pursuit of a larger, long term goal: an isomer! (This is the word I was stumbling on in class. It is from the Greek, isos means "same" and meros means "part".) For the chemist, an isomer is a group of atoms whose molecular parts are the same as another group, but the configuration is different. Isomers are molecules that contain the same set of atoms, but with two different configurations. Both configurations are stable: They are at their lowest energy level. In addition to different yet stable configurations, their energy levels are different! One configuration holds more energy than the other. When you consider Jack's story, doesn't this ring true? Doesn't it seem like the configuration of Jack pursuing both ROTC and Varsity Swim Team is a stable configuration that represents a higher level of energy than Jack pursuing only one, and sad that he had to give the other up? The sum ends up being more that straight addition of the two parts.
The other interesting parallel between isomers at the molecular level and us humans at the macro level is the transition between one configuration and the next. In the words of Erwin Schrödinger (most infamously known for the "Schrödinger's Cat" thought experiment), "The transition from one to the other can only take place over intermediate configurations which have a great energy than either of them." (Schrödinger, What is Life? p. 58) He also points out that isomerism is not the exception, it is the rule.
My conclusion? Congratulations to all of you for stretching to join this Intergenerational Ethics class! If you find it difficult to carve out the time to participate, count it as part of a momentary "intermediate transitional state" of higher energy, that will land you in a transformed and stable place of higher energy!