One Small Kindness — A Life of Curiosity
There is more to a word than the definition
When I tell someone that my college degree is in philosophy I nearly always get the head tilt to the side look of “really?” Despite the quizzical looks or the quick, “I could never study that” response, I’m confident that my deep interest in philosophy is not weird or special. It’s one of my defining characteristics. However, if not for a small kindness shown to me when I was in High School, I may never have allowed myself to pursue my natural curiosity and find my ‘love of wisdom’.
My wife and I have been watching the show, “The Good Place” on the recommendation of our 17-year-old daughter. If you are familiar with the show you might have already guessed that I’ve become particularly fond of the character, Chidi Anagonye. Chidi is a (fictional) moral philosophy professor at St. John’s University in Australia. The criticism he gets from the other characters is that “nobody likes moral philosophers.” The joke works because of challenges Chidi presents to his friends but more broadly because many find philosophy both boring and impractical — if not downright nonsensical.
Philosophy, which from Greek means ‘love of wisdom’, was not a word I remember being uttered in my home growing up. Our blue-collar parents encouraged us to read and do well in school…
