capstone...

I'm going to make a public confession. I've become one of those simpering girls drawing hearts in the margins of her notebooks and texts.

My love, however, is not any living man. I wouldn't even say I'm in love with John Henry Cardinal Newman, a devout Christian and 19th century scholar [well on his way to sainthood in the Catholic Church]. I am impressed by his passion and humility. When his future sainthood was suggested, he replied, "Saints are not literary men, they do not love the classics, they do not write Tales." [oh, but good men do, john henry...]

My Norton margins are full of hearts because, well, [never let it be said that i turned down a cheesy cliche] my heart is full. Maybe it's just because his work has shaped so much of my college and my favorite professors, [and they basically justify my entire educational experience] but I am so passionate about his writings. [perhaps this is merely further proof of complete indoctrination about classical education/hillsdale philosophy]

Then again, maybe I'm just so excited to have the foundation [three and a half years in the making, kids, or maybe all twenty-two] to understand and appreciate something so-complex-that-it-makes-your-head-hurt but so-good-you-pound-the-table-with-your-fist that I'll believe anything.

But seriously, check it out: [stick with me, this is some thought-provoking stuff]

When I speak of Knolwedge, I mean something intellectual, something which grasps what it perceives through the senses; something which takes a view of things; which seems more than the senses convey; which reasons upon what it sees, and while it sees; which invests it with an idea.

Not to know the relative disposition of things is the state of slaves or children...

Moreover, such knowledge is not a mere extrinsic or accidental advantage, which is ours today and another's tomorrow, which may be got up from a book, and easily forgotten again, which we can command or communicated at our pleasure, which we can borrow for the occasion, carry about in our hand, and take into the market; it is acquired illumination, it is a habit, a personal possession, and an inward endowment. And this is the reason why it is more correct, as well as more usual, to speak of a University as a place of education than instruction.

Education is a higher word; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connection with religion and virtue.
[all from discourse 5 - Knowledge Its Own End]

This is the reason why we are here. We love because we are Loved infinitely. We create because we mirror our Creator. We develop our minds because God gave them to us to develop. Not with vain or selfish or worthless knowledge, but by engaging our minds and hearts with true instruction and wonder. We seek Him so we can find who we truly are.

This is why I'm getting a Classical Liberal Arts degree in English. Not so I can do, but so I can be.

[it's my last semester, so be prepared to suffer through more of the same and plenty of nostalgia]