Hey, everyone! How are you all? Getting enough pumpkin spice in your system? 😉 Let’s have another Socratic circle, shall we? *passes around steaming lattes and cozy sweaters*

Last month’s Socratic question asked, What does it mean to live “in between?” This was a tough one, and I was so excited to see how y’all would respond to it. I’m thrilled to say we got two uniquely awesome answers! The first came from Samantha @ Bookshire:

I assume . . . 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.

The second response came from Hazel!

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.

*cackles ’cause I love this so much* Honestly… I have no idea if either of you are right or wrong because that’s just the way this question is, but I love both of y’all’s thoughts just the same. Both are very relatable and have practical, day-to-day applications. So good! *applauds the pair of you* Thanks for participating, girls!

Now, on to the Socratic issue for October! I picked another rather difficult question this time…just because. ^_^ Without further ado— *tosses the question at you*

Is hope a fraud?

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 October 31 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. ^_^

I’m stoked to see what y’all think about this month’s Socratic question!