A Second Week

I have begun to take an account of where I am. I obviously do not mean my literal place geographically of course, but I also do not mean that I am simply taking stock of what I have done these last six semesters at Wilkes (though that is no small task!). What I mean, is that I am taking stock of where I am in my head; what kind of scholar, what kind of leader, and what kind of follower I was today.

Of the three, leader I deem least important to examine daily, and so I will not discuss it today. Today what weighs on my mind is the future. Again, I am not focusing on the standard 'where will I get a job' or 'how will I pay for college loans and graduate school and a family all while trying the further my education and work at the same time' questions - though they do seem daunting. I have faith that these will work themselves out in whatever ways they are supposed to be worked out.

Faith. The ultimate act of being a follower. Strange realizations come about when I think about faith. A common one, one I just had again when I typed these last few sentences, is that a person that always tries to lead can honestly say that the most important thing in their life is how good and true a follower they can be. But this is not my concern today; my concern is a realization I had in my philosophy. It is a realization that I think I've known for some time, an answer to a question that I probably knew the moment I first asked the question. I often say that my principle philosophical dilemma is reconciling my religious beliefs, which are very Calvinist, with my social/legal principles, but really, there is no reconciliation needed. There is only qualification. My religious beliefs are qualified by my belief in a social contract theory.

Which gets me to the ultimate point of this post today, a pronouncement that I hope will be a guide for these future posts. It regards something I originally said I did not want to focus on today, my academic future.

I want to lead the movement to apply a combination literary theory that is a hybrid of post-colonial studies and the leveled-society work done by Scottish enlightenment historian Lord Kames in the study of 16th and 17th century religious persecution and reformation.

I am thrilled that I am in a class this semester that is all about undergraduate research and is centered in seventeenth-century British literature. I plan on beginning this hybridization as soon as possible.

Ultimately, I have been, am, and always will be a member of the archetypal/mythological school; this is the way that I do it.