Depth

I had an epiphany yesterday while listening to a lecture from my leadership class on Coursera. He was talking about seeing things from other people's point of view and it hit me.

You know how your eyes work? You see one picture with one eye and another with the other eye and your brain puts them together as one and gives us depth. It similar with different people's point of view. Everyone has their own point of view, how they see the world, and it is influenced by the way they were raised, their education, their culture, etc. Each person's view is completely valid and real to them. They each have something to add.

So I have my point of view and if I reach out and validate another persons point of view, my brain combines the two into one picture and I have a depth of understanding in this world. The more people you connect with and reach out to understand, the deeper your understanding goes.

Just like your eyes, even people who live and operate very close to you have a slightly different take on things that, if you connect with them, can change your depth perception of reality.

If more people could come to the realization that everyone has their own story to tell and that everyone has their very own point of view that is completely real, valid, and influences their decisions, there would be a lot more peace in this world.

A thought on "Separation of Church and State"

From my Constitution class on Coursera.

This weeks lectures were on the First Amendment. I had many thoughts about the whole week, but I wanted to bring one up here.

They were talking about removing prayer from public schools in the 60's (which were only added in the late 40's and 50's) and people's reaction to it. "the Catholic cardinal of New York blasted the justices for crippling the 'very heart of the godly tradition in which America's children have so long been raised.' " I have a problem with that. In the past, parent's raised children, not schools. If you want to raise your children in a godly tradition (as I have chosen to do myself), then don't send them to public schools. Find a private school that teaches in your religion, or teach them yourself as people have done for thousands of years.

The problem is that secular state/government has taken over the role of parent. They've brainwashed everyone into thinking you need a professional trained by the state to educate children. It's just not true. If you can read, write, and do basic math, then you are perfectly capable of passing that along to another human being. With the internet and public libraries, there is no excuse for anyone not to that wants to. If you want your children raised a specific way, then raise them yourself. Don't send them off to a publicly funded institution and expect them to do things your way.

Taking a Class on Coursera

I signed up for this a month ago and it started last week, "Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases". So far so good!

I finished the first weeks lectures and reading in time for this weeks stuff. That makes me feel good because I wasn't sure I could keep up. We homeschool our kids and so there is a lot of noise all day. I can't really focus on watching a video or writing well when there is much of a distraction. I can do it while video games are being played, but not during TV shows.

Reading is different. I need to do that when everything is quiet and still. I only have about two hours in the morning with that kind of an atmosphere. That would be plenty of time for the reading for this class, but I already read my Bible first, then a few pages of my current part of "The Great Books of Western Civilization". And then my husband is working on remodeling our bathroom in the morning before he goes to his room to work (he works from home), so the boys hear that and wake up a little earlier. They have been very helpful by keeping the TV off until at least 8am for me.

As for the class, I like it. I took a Constitution class through Hillsdale last year and it was not to my liking. It was more about worshiping the Founding Fathers and treated the Constitution as a holy document instead of a legal one. This class is a bit more objective so far.

The first lecture talked about how the Constitution that we have could have been construed as treason since they went to amend the Articles of Confederation and ended up scrapping them all together.

The other thing I never really understood was Originalism vs. Evolutionism regarding the Constitution and judicial activism. That has been fascinating. I have leaned toward keeping true to the original intent of the authors, but hearing the evolutionist side, I can see where they got their ideas. What bothers me about it is that it seems like one of those "slippery slopes" you hear about.