Grateful Note: Gratitude for a Motorcycle-Fixing Philosopher Who Helps Us Repair Some Knowledge and Reality Problems

This evening, I'm grateful for the insights of Matthew Crawford. His influence has helped me integrate the hands-on and classroom teaching parts of my life, while also helping me see the shortcomings of knowledge work and and philosophical abstractions that often leave us untethered from reality and responsible relationships. 

Grateful Note: Rest Is a Much Needed Idea to Practice

This evening, I am grateful for the idea of rest. It sounds so simple to rest, yet it can be so difficult. I find myself sometimes bristling a little bit when my loved one suggests that I take some time to relax. 

Both common sense and spiritual wisdom from many traditions admonish us to rest, for our good and the good of those around us. We actually get more done by taking more time to rest, in intervals during the day, at night through sleep, and through some sort of weekly version of a rest day. 

Grateful Note: The Grace of Great Things with Rilke and Palmer

This morning I'm grateful for the grace of great things. I've reworked this post from a previous pandemic-era posting years ago from my now defunct blog site.

"'And thou wilt have the grace of the great things.' For it was just that which Rodin was seeking: the grace of the great things." --from Rainer Maria Rilke's "Auguste Rodin"

As educators and thoughtful human beings, we often should be subject-centered and thereby more relationally-minded in our teaching, living, and pursuit of long-term flourishing. Being subject-centered sounds counterintuitive, but it's true and helpful. Under the influence of poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Parker Palmer explains in The Courage to Teach that subject-centered teaching is the best way to approach teaching and learning. Rilke and Palmer are just a few of the many thoughtful writers who compel me to assert that good subject-centered knowledge rightly guides better relationships--and better ways of knowing.

Grateful Note: Labor Day and Various Thinkers on Work

This evening, I'm grateful for the varieties of work that keep human life going in all it's dimensions. With Walt Whitman, we can still "Hear America Singing" our various songs while we work. Some of the songs may have become edgy and cynical, but guys like Mike Rowe do much to remind us of the goodness of hands-on work and how it is more important than ever. 

Despite the absurd satire around The Office concerning so-called knowledge work, there's still a lot to be gained from working on all kinds of work.