A Philosophy Major In Texas
Who Didn’t Know What He Was Getting Until He Retired
“Life is like a box of chocolates,” I thought Forrest Gumpily. “But my life is more like a can of mixed nuts. I can see what I’m getting, but I don’t always get enough of what I like.”
You don’t always know what you’re getting in a box of chocolates.
One day in College in the sixties, I told my faculty advisor I was choosing secondary education. That meant I would take many exciting courses applied to the school teaching profession. I had to take a curriculum class or two. I had to take a couple of psychology classes. I had to take a philosophy class.
The philosophy class was difficult and the Prof told me and a bunch of ol’ knuckleheaded boys sitting in the back of the classroom that we would fail. I knew we didn’t understand philosophy, but I wanted to be a schoolteacher, so I needed to pass the class.
Accordingly, I asked the professor how we could compensate for our lack of attention in his class. What I heard astounded me. He said to sit at the desks in front of the class, take notes, and then “…look up and nod as though you understood or thought what I said was important.”
He thought that would inspire the other class members.
So that’s what me and the other old boys decided to do. But I wanted to do more than pass the class. That’s when I decided that besides looking up and nodding as though I understood, I would say a word like “indubitably.” I’m not sure that that was an appropriate word, but it sounded like it was OK.
That’s when I got interested in philosophy.
I was getting to understand the stuff. So, I took another couple of classes in philosophy and eventually entered the master’s degree program for educational philosophy. You know, in Texas, it was a small department. The head of the department was happy to have another student. He made it easy for me, and eventually, I became a philosophy major with a master’s degree.
Of course, if you ask me today what my philosophy of life was, I will say that I was neither a realist, an idealist, or a pragmatist. I mainly wanted to get by the day without too many aches and pains or having to sit on some thistle.
Sam is a retired drug counselor & keeps his Texas license current. An MA from UTA, he writes about addiction to substances, behaviors, and thistles of the soul.
