Today was all about the 3 F's of seminary life, fraternity, fun, and... ummm... filosophy(?). It was a wonderful day for all three because today we had our first class dinner of the year. One of my brothers from the class made a HUGE amount of pulled pork, some homemade cole slaw, baked macaroni and cheese and an apple crisp for dessert. It was amazing! It is so much fun spending time with my class, watching the Tigers win at O'Berg's and eating food prepared with a great deal of love. Our brother was very kind and definitely viewed his cooking as a gift to share with us. Coming from someone who loves to get down in the kitchen as well, it was a GREAT meal and a very very tough act to beat if I were to ever try my hand at cooking for the class.
After dinner and clean up, which I more watched than participated in (someone has to help supervise and uplift his brothers with his amazing presence), we studied some philosophy. I love sitting in study groups with my classmates who are taking philosophy classes because occasionally, I'll know what they're talking about and I can be helpful and, let's face it, I'm so nerdy talking about philosophy is just plain fun for me. Apparently, there is an upcoming ethics test on Kant and John Stuart Mill and I just love ethics so it was a match made in Heaven. I got to talk about the joys of utilitarianism. It's all fun and games until it comes time to crack a few eggs for the omelet!
My favorite part is shooting holes in both systems with same question. Neither philosopher does a good job of saying "Why should I care about anyone but me?" This is one question I feel so very qualified to speak about because it almost amounts to a manifestation of conscience. There is that little rebellious voice inside that occasionally shouts "Why should I care about anyone besides me?" The best part about this is only the Catholic can answer this best by saying "Because, that is what we were made for. Because, God loved us first!" The worldly philosophies either decay into selfishness or a strange sense of duty for the sake of duty. Neither of these is the narrow way, neither of these is the way of the Cross! Ultimately, love is the only proper grounding for ethics! Love is what we were made for; love pushes us outside of our own selfish dumb heads and out into the beauty that is the other and, ultimately, to The Other! Studying Kant and Mill just makes me SO happy to be grounded in Christ, because the alternatives are not pleasant!
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