Happy September, everyone! Are the fall/school vibes staring to kick in in your corner of the world yet? 😉 They have for me—so much so that I almost forgot to do this. XD Phew!
As always, let’s start this Socratic circle by reviewing last month’s Socratic question, which asked, Why do you think Abraham Lincoln is generally renowned as one of the greatest American Presidents of all time?
This issue received a response from Samantha @ Bookshire, who had this to say:
Hm. I don’t know if I can give *the* reason, but I can certainly give my take (and that’s all you’re asking from me anyway!).
I think that part of the reason is that he was able to pilot the country through a very hard period of time, keeping the country united despite the Civil War.
It was also easy to see that he gave his all for his country. From what I’ve heard, he worked non-stop a lot of the time, trying to make everything work out for the country, trying to do his job, trying to fix things that really didn’t have an easy fix. That’s admirable, and it’s something that people see and do admire.
He also was a very humble guy, from what I’ve read. He wasn’t bragging, didn’t have an agenda *for himself*, and didn’t try to make himself the center of attention. He simply did the right thing, without worrying about the approval of everyone else.
There is also, of course, the fact that he was assassinated. We often admire our assassinated presidents quite a bit, because there’s a bit of a “martyrdom” factor. 🙂
He was on the morally correct side of the war (or at least, it was morally correct in many ways, if not all…but that’s a Socratic Circle for another day), but he treated his opponents with respect and compassion.
Great thoughts, Samantha! I especially agree with your “martyrdom” point. It was overall a contentious question, to be sure, and I’m glad that you had the courage to wrestle with it and present your perspective for us to read. Thanks for participating!
Now, what is the issue for this month’s Socratic circle, you ask? Well, seeing as I’m officially a college student now (more on that in an upcoming post!), I chose an issue that was presented in my very first Great Texts discussion. Appropriately, I find it loads more difficult than previous issues we’ve had, but because of that I’m especially looking forward to seeing what answers we receive. Here it is:
What does it mean to live “in between?”
If you’re interested in expressing your views on this issue, please feel free to comment about it; write a post, short story, or poem; make a piece of art; or literally anything else; and I will collect any entries and feature them in the next Socratic circle post. Just be sure you keep in mind the following:
- Define your terms! (If there’s one thing my homeschool curriculum has taught me, it’s the importance of this practice. XD)
- Keep your submission PG, please. I will not feature anything that contains vulgar content of any kind.
- If you don’t put your submission in the comments of this post, be sure to comment below and leave a link to your submission(s) by September 30 if you wish for it to be featured. (There is a chance, of course, that I’ll simply happen upon your submission—I follow many of the people who follow me—but I can’t guarantee it.)
- Please feel free to tag others to participate in our circle! The more the merrier!
- And of course, you’re welcome to post, comment, etc. on a previous month’s Socratic circle issue as well—just know that it won’t get featured in the next post (but I’d still love to see it!).
And as always, if there aren’t any responses to this question, that’s totally fine. The point of these posts is just to get everyone thinking. Certain issues may not require outward expression for some, and that’s okay. ^_^
I’m so excited to see what y’all come up with!
Havalah Ruth Peirce 
What does it mean to live “in between”?
First of all, this is quite a vague question! I just want to register my discontent with the lack of specificity. 😉
I assume, though, that it has to do with the idea that the earth is “our ship and not our home”, to know that we cannot be fully at home on earth, but someday, we will be at home in heaven.
To live in that manner, we must remember that someday we will leave here and not get too attached. We must cultivate a healthy discontent with living here, a homesickness for heaven. But in the meantime, we can’t simply discount this world, we have to work to make it as good as possible while we’re here. As Chesterton would say, we have an obligation of loyalty to the earth, to improve it to the best of our abilities.
So. Those are my thoughts! Short today, but then, this is my second week of college, so I don’t have a lot of time. 🙂
LikeLike
Ah, but that’s the fun of it, mate! I was a bit annoyed at the vagueness of the question too, when it was presented in class, but I was amazed at the answers we had formed by the end of our discussion! Sometimes vagueness can be quite useful. 😉
Ah, I like this! And I agree with you. Thanks for your thoughts!
LikeLike
hmmmm……
to me, its being pulled between two things, but instead of living in one and the other, you’ve managed to find yourself in neither, or some combination of the two. kind of like if you fell asleep and were dreaming, but your eyes were still open and you could also see your bedroom.
its also like being stuck. you cant choose, or are forced not to choose, either option.
its emotionally taxing, bouncing between two worlds and two sets of feelings and two personalities. like, do i pull out this fact about myself, or does that belong to the other me, or is it both? do i talk like this or act like this, or is it something else? do i like this person? do i not? its honestly just a big mess of confusing, stick-in-the-middle soup.
and i am going to shut up before i start rambling too much :)))
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting!!
LikeLike