Hi! Hi! Hi! My name is Morri Lee. Welcome to this site, and a spot of Thinking. I will explain a little of my background in relation to Thinker’s Corner
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates
From 1995-2001 I worked at the University of Southern Queensland Guild in Australia as Advocate and Problem Solver to PhD, Masters and Undergrad students.
Whilst there I founded a philosophy group called Thinker’s Corner, and was Chairman of that group from 1996-2000. Thinker's met regularly at the University for two hours (3-5pm) every Friday for nearly five years. It was an amazing collection of about thirty people made up of; about twelve PhD’s and senior lecturers from Psychology, Psychiatry, Law, Literature, Economics (nearly the whole department attended) Senior Military Officers, the Clergy and civic leaders. Thinkers had three aims:
To think in logical ways
To consider ideas meaningful to humanity
To learn from each other.
Topics were taken from: History, Literature, Philosophy, Science, Theology. We studied things like: the Story of Philosophy, The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis Flood, Three plays of Sophocles, Five Lives from Plutarch, the Last Days of Socrates, Aristotle’s Ethics, the Boyer Lectures, the Constitution, the Book of Job and many more.
The entertaining trick was to combine a topic with an appropriate leader and a meaningful text. For example we considered the topic of Leadership for a month. Lt Col (Later Brigadier) Peter Lambert was elected to lead it. The topics were four in number; Leadership in Society, Leadership and Morality, Leadership in Combat (W.O. 2 David Hunnam a Vietnam veteran led this topic) and Leadership in the Death Zone. (Above 8,000 meters in Alpine climbing. Peter was an Everest mountaineer and led this Friday himself.) The month was unforgettable.
My weekly routine was to contact and distribute that week’s text to all members. On the day I would chair the meeting and hand over to the leader. The leader would then speak for 30-50 minutes laying the background to the topic, after which each person explained their own point of view of the text until the end.
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It gave us clarity and hope. Those minds elevated our own above mere work to Life; it lifted us from the narrow sided rut of existence to a high, wide, sunny mountain-top alive to the discovery of new lands just over the horizon; a future of new ideas and startling possibilities
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The two hours sped by like a bullet. Much of the time we were laughing, which did not seem at all incompatible with Thinking. I suspect it was the joy and excitement of sharing the company of intellectual people; others who could clearly articulate ideas we all thought and felt, but had never heard so well expressed before. It gave us clarity and hope. Those minds elevated our own above mere work to Life; it lifted us from the narrow sided rut of existence to a high, wide, sunny mountain-top alive to the discovery of new lands just over the horizon, a new future of new ideas and startling possibilities.
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….a precious jewel of life’s meaning captured and clearly understood in beautiful words: apples of gold in pictures of silver
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Every Friday afternoon we heard a hundred sparkling thoughts from a dozen brilliant minds working at white heat, trying to capture their own unique perspective in precisely weighted words, judiciously faceted to fit their exact idea. The flow of language had grace of eloquence and was embellished with the charm of courtesy. Just to listen to someone like the poet Bruce Dawe was completely absorbing. Bruce would begin his idea and build on it, and as he added meaning it was like watching the golden trail of a sky-rocket arcing upward against a black velvet sky, and each successful expression would explode in ones mind with striking and vivid colors in an expanding circle of a thousand tiny lights; a precious jewel of life’s meaning captured and clearly expressed in beautiful words: apples of gold in pictures of silver.
One of the keenest Thinkers was David Rappaport, a dignified Barrister at Law, measured, precise, meticulous; a man of exquisite taste, courtesy and intelligence - a craftsman in the English language. David was the greatest Gentlemen I've ever met, and the best of men. David’s professional fee was about half a thousand dollars an hour in 1996. He attended Thinkers' whenever his busy schedule would allow. One Friday he came for an hour but said nothing himself. I wondered at his self-control as I sat there watching him write notes. He was a man of sublime intelligence. His ability to converse was superb. 'Surely he must have many thoughts', I thought. A second hour passed and still he hadn't uttered a solitary word, not a single syllable. Later as we walked together back to his car I asked the reason for it. He smiled gently and confessed to me: “I just like to listen to the others speak their inner thoughts Morri. I discover so much about Life that way.” I stood and pondered as I watched his faithful Citroen wagon trek its way home. He had paid a thousand dollars to listen for two hours. How different from noisy people who speak always of themselves. Here is a second example of listening.
Another time General Cliff Griffiths (retired) sat silent for two hours. Cliff was a craggy but affable serious-but-funny man who used to command the entire Australian Army Reserve, and was one of the most regular Thinkers. I had always thought Generals did all the talking. Not so. I asked Cliff the same question. “I just like to listen to the others,” he told me simply. Great Generals and great leaders value listening. Through it they can compare their own inner world with that of another.
I have introduced these anecdotes merely to suggest what the atmosphere is like around reflective people. Reflective people want to try and understand life's dynamism: their own inner world, the inner world of others, as well as the world outside of themselves. The question is: are all three matching at each moment?
What is the option to non-thinking, non-self reflection? To answer this I must first pose a question. How do you know if you are mad or not? Ever thought about that? What if you went mad and didn’t know it? How could you tell? What test would you use to determine your sanity?
I suggest that if you ask the question; “Am I mad?” You are not. Why? Because you asked the question. You see the question admits difference between the two states. The question presupposes you can think in two ways, and so ask the question. The insane do not ask the question because they lack the mirror of self-objectivity: they only have one state; themselves. The insane assert their behavior by prerogative, and therefore it is beyond question or analysis. The sane do not cling to this privilege. A person must never get used to privilege.
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Non-reflection – the failure to examine oneself – means that there is no possibility to alter ones future circumstances.
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Socrates truly said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” It is a sad spectacle to observe an aged and stubborn criminal. He still commits the same errors as he did in his inexperienced youth. Did the aged not learn cause and effect from his crimes through the years? Did her not try to understand? Did he not learn that happiness is caused by observing justice, and unhappiness is the result of disobeying principle. Did he not stop and examine the incongruity between his thoughts and the results of his actions? How much sadness he could have saved himself. Non-reflection – the failure to examine oneself – means that there is no possibility to alter ones future circumstances. One cannot steer their ship to a safe harbor if the compass is ignored. Non-reflection means there is no one at the helm, and that the rudder is driven this way and that by life’s currents, which turn the vessel of our lives broadside-on to the restless waves of trouble, buffeted by the billows of grief and care.
The future cannot be foretold, but our future can be navigated by reference to the eternal wisdom; the fixed stars of timeless principle and true facts. The storms of life come to each as surely as the sun rises. The storms of life are unavoidable, but the storms do not last forever. The successful person is the one who possesses this knowledge and examines themselves to check their past actions with their present situation. This allows them to chart a course for the future. ________________________________________
Epictetus, the slave who taught Caesar Marcus Aurelius once said; “Although we cannot chose what happens to us, we can choose how we respond.”
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As the ocean is filled with the possibility of dangers to ships: reefs, shoals, currents, winds and waves, just so Life presents dangers to the ship of our soul: frustrated by futile hopes - clouds without rain - and driven to dangers by strong winds, deflected from our Life’s-course by the currents of passion and desire, beached on the shoal of unproductive actions, swamped and overcome by the wild waves of misfortune and grief, wrecked on the hidden reef of misjudgment and error. Misfortune is a fact, but we have Choice. Epictetus, the slave who taught Caesar Marcus Aurelius once said; “Although we cannot chose what happens to us, we can choose how we respond.”
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Reading the literature of wisdom suggests the ideas that have led others to happy outcomes....adjust ourselves to what works
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Examining our own lives allows us to respond in creative ways, and desist from unproductive patterns that repeat in our lives. It suggests we respond in ways other than past ways.
Reading the literature of wisdom suggests the ideas that have led others to happy outcomes, the means and routes of achievement and lasting success. But before this comes the necessity of reflection and honest self-examination. We must adjust ourselves to what works; follow the well-charted course of life's winners.
It was those wonderful people of Thinker’s Corner that showed me the connection between intelligent ideas and intelligent achievement; between reasonable ideas and the beneficent effects reasonable ideas bring.
From these leaders I gained two priceless habits of mind; critical thinking, and language that expresses itself in carefully selected words. I owe them more than words can tell, and thank them for their deep friendship, kindly instruction and inspirational example of examining oneself.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates
-ooOOoo-
Morrithinkingman.blogspot.com
Seoul,
South Korea.
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