Humanity
Opinions
Are you entitled to your opinion? You can have an 0pinion but you aren’t always entitled to it. Professor Patrick Stokes, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Deakin University, in an article originally posted in The Conversation, says “philosophy teachers owe it to our students to teach them how to construct and defend an argument – and to recognize when a belief has become indefensible.” That article came out in 2012 and earlier this year Stokes revisited it, stating that, “Today, it is clear that many of our politicians and commentators have never seen the inside of a philosophy classroom and the question of whether we are entitled to our opinion is more pertinent than ever before.”
By Janon4 years ago in Confessions
Pardon Me For a Moment of Your Time...
"Who's sorry now???" (Patsy Cline). "...But I think it's about (Forgiveness, Forgive..." (Don Henley) "...me, I know not what I do! Please FORGIVE ME, I..." (Bryan Adams) "...'m sorry I'm bad; I'm sorry you're blue! I'm sorry about all the things I said..." (Buckcherry). "...Too late to apologize; it's too laaaaaate!" (OneRepublic)
By Kent Brindley4 years ago in Confessions
Why Reading Is Good for You
I was shopping in my favourite bookstore - China in a Bull's Shop - when I began to wonder if it was worth my time. I had more than enough books at home that I hadn’t read and likely would not read. What was I doing there? I had to get back to work in about an hour and was distracted by the thought that I had forgotten my discount card. I had also walked to the store on my break with a sandwich and spilled lettuce and tomato all over my clothes. Wiping myself off, I passed between the double scanners, instantly setting off the alarm. After a friendly clerk looked through my knapsack and discovered my DVDs – borrowed, forgotten, and overdue – I noticed a piece of tomato which had somehow affixed itself to my groin. I suppose that was the moment when I felt that it was not worth my time. But I needed to go shopping. After all of those little incidents, I needed to take some time off for myself. A book would work, for the moment.
By Kendall Defoe 4 years ago in Confessions
Pinning Butterflies
The air conditioning in my Volkswagen Jetta sputtered volumes regarding the current state of affairs. After all of these years, it still miraculously managed to crank, but even I knew that it was on the border of just walking away from everything; much like its owner. Like all practical applications of life that sucked, we had both learned to tie the proverbial knot when we reached the end of the rope.
By Marybeth King4 years ago in Confessions
The Hole and the Thread
I don’t know the first time I did it. I just started doing it. And then I kind of couldn’t stop. I still can’t. I had already been getting up early in the morning, lighting candles, making some coffee and writing. Every morning, I wrote something bold, and perhaps even damaging to my professional reputation, because it was raw and vulnerable. I wasn’t doing it because I cared about what other people thought—what I cared about was truth. I cared about being free. I needed to cleanse and share things that had been stuffed inside me for a long, long time, and the way I did that was through writing.
By Jana Marie Rose4 years ago in Confessions
A Direction For Demons
Have you ever lived your life without inner peace? There are people out there who claim to have their demons and use them as an excuse to act the way they do. But, then, some are just the opposite—people who pretend that everything is fine. But things are not fine, and they’re just ignoring the warning signs, red flags, and their own toxic behavior.
By Mike Casey4 years ago in Confessions
I cry
I hate. With all my heart I hate. The unfairness that has been my life. When, no matter what you do, you can't win. I hate and I cry. I let myself cry over the emotional wounds that have been hiding beneath my surface perfection for the last 40 years. My robot slave self, doing what I was told, always. Never being allowed to speak, have an opinion, express truth, or have a god-damn preference. Silence child, shut up and obey was my life and so now, I cry. Tired of the insults and injury. Taking them all, with such grace, such courage, and such ignorance. Because I did not know any other way. Nobody ever taught me. Nobody ever showed me grace. Nobody ever showed me love.
By Emile Clark4 years ago in Confessions
Santa And The Shark
It was the last weekend of November of 2016, we decided to go on a fishing trip. So the three or us, my wife, my cousin and I started getting ready for the trip. We packed warm clothing and snacks but we decided to pack our gear in the morning. My wife was so excited for the trip because she loves to be at the water, it's so relaxing to her. All I was doing was thinking about catching the big one like any other fisherman would do. Finally we laid down to sleep but she couldn't sleep, so like a baby I took her for a ride until she got sleepy. When got back home she went straight to sleep and so did I. Morning came and we all went to the family house to eat breakfast with some family members. After we ate, it was time for us to get our gear together and leave. It wasn't long until we was ready to go. My cousin said to me if you drive there that he would drive back. I said okay and we began to leave and one of our aunts said hold on. She bent over and grabbed one of her shoes and threw it and hit the car for good luck. I drove off and headed to the water. All the while we were laughing and telling stories as usual, and all of them very funny. It was a round 1:30 in the afternoon when we got there and my wife was ready and so was I. When we finally got to the water it was real nice, not to many people. We started fishing but wasn't catching anything, it was aright because I was with my wife and my favorite cousin, known to people as the fisherman. After about three hours I caught the first fish and it was a keeper. My cousin said, oh wow I hope that the fish will start biting and before he could enjoy looking at my fish he got a bite and caught his first fish. Then everyone that was there started catching fish and we all was excited. The fish stopped biting after about two hours, I looked up and I saw Santa walking towards us. He stopped and asked was the fish biting and my cousin said that they just stopped because they knew that you was coming. He laughed and said he came to bring the big ones in. I said to him I hope that you are right. So he went back to gather his things and then I notice that he was driving a bright red truck with some sort of light on the top of it. In my mind I'm thinking that he could be right. Before he could get back to the water I caught another fish and it was the biggest so far. It was a huge fish but it was bigger than the rest and my cousin said I believe that Santa might be on to something. Then he caught a fish and his was bigger than the one that I had just caught. Then Santa came back and started fishing, he began to catch fish and laughing the whole time. Him laughing like that made everybody else laugh. All of a sudden Santa rod starts to bend and we all stopped to watch him land that big fish that was on his line. Santa fault and fault and he fault some more. He was getting tired, he has been fighting that monster almost an hour. Finally the fish began to get weak and Santa had the upper hand. We all couldn't wait so see what was on the other end, soon we knew what it was. It was a huge sand shark, Santa said some words that wasn't nice and then he said the he was going to teach that shark a lesson for biting his hook. I had no idea what he meant, but I was thinking that he was going to take the shark home with him to eat. My cousin asked Santa, what are you going to do with that shark once you finally get him on shore. Santa looked us in the eyes and said, I'm not bringing that shark to the shore, I'm going out where he is and kiss him butt. We all laughed because we thought that he was joking. Once he got that shark close enough he told the guy next to him to hold his rod for a moment. The guy said alright, I knew that your arms was getting tired. Santa passed him the rod, I called my cousin and wife because I knew right then that we was getting ready to see a show. By that time Santa jumped over the railing right next to the shark. I couldn't believe what I just saw so then I yelled to Santa, the shark got his Christmas gift early. He got that shark by the tail and pulled it even closer to the shore. Then we realized how big that shark really was. The shark was bigger than Santa, but that didn't stop Santa from doing what he said he was going to do. He said to us I told ya'll that I was going to teach this shark a lesson. What he did next could not have been written by a movie producer. He lifted the shark tail out of the water and then he bite that shark right on the tail. The shark leaped out of the water and landed back in and he disappeared back into the deep. Santa got out of the water and came back on the pier with us and said I told you so.
By Arthur Golden4 years ago in Confessions
