The Summer of 2012

          We know truth, not only by reason, but also by heart.          
          —Blaise Pascal

          This summer, I was blessed to receive three guest posts from two authors, 'Fear,' 'Smoking Weed,' and 'Why I am a Slut' (viewable via sidebar on the right). These guest posts received 373 total combined pageviews; why were they popular? Is it because it wasn't my voice? Yes. What about the subject matter: personal happiness, marijuana, and relationships? Perhaps. How about, we categorize these pieces as good writing? The two authors were not English majors; they both studied/study business; one is straight and the other (quite obviously, although at least two people have told me they thought ‘Slut’ was written by a girl) is gay.

          My point is great writing is in all of us. It's sometimes in me—sometimes I write sentences that take my breath away—although, it is rare, I must admit. Anyone can write a great sentence. You must believe in what you’re writing, however. You can’t back down from the strength of your great ideas: truth that resonates with the heart as well as the brain. Carpe Diem. Let me add: Scito Te Ipsum. In English, 'Know Thyself.' Know yourself. Know who you are and what you like to do and who you wish to become. SEIZE the day through knowing who you are.

          I am an imperfect person who doesn't know what to say at times. I only recently realized I am fairly awkward and that I am comfortable with that. I find my solace in books. I don’t really know what to say around someone I truly appreciate or someone whom I’d like to get to know better.

          Pascal was a mathematician, and he tells us truth is accessible by the heart. Pascal's Wager aside (with its philosophical problems), he made significant contributions to geometry, probability theory, and the physical sciences. 

           Wikipedia: In De l'Art de persuader ("On the Art of Persuasion"), Pascal looked deeper into geometry's axiomatic method, specifically the question of how people come to be convinced of the axioms upon which later conclusions are based. Pascal agreed with Montaigne that achieving certainty in these axioms and conclusions through human methods is impossible. He asserted that these principles can only be grasped through intuition, and that this fact underscored the necessity for submission to God in searching out truths. 

          Axiomatic principles of mathematics accessible only through intuition? What? What do you mean by intuition? Perhaps intuition is this: the sun, by its light, gives life but also sight. We could not live not without the sun, quite literally, but too much of its light in the form of UV rays will hurt our skin. But the sun rises as a new day begins. How does it rise? It doesn't. We turn, and by 'we' I mean we the Earth. Our spinning on an axis produces the 'rise' of the sun. And perhaps we're in our beds reading this right now; the sun has just pierced your bedroom window through its many photons travelling at the speed of light. You wake. Your eyes are tired as any but slowly, as your eyes adjust to the newfound light (by gradually opening your squinting to a full-on look), you see the sun. You see the shadows of the buildings produced by the sun and how beautiful the trees seem or don’t seem. It is a new day. And you keep this truth in your heart, close to it, and not like other truths you'll throw like wastepaper at people around you. This is intuition: knowing without knowing. And intuition is impressive—it is like love. Like how a loved one leaves an impression on your heart, intuition comes from within and changes you forever. The conceit is that we needed a word like 'intuition': it is within us and it is mysterious. It's in your heart. And when you expand your heart, you'll expand the scope of your intuition. This is love of woman and love of man; it is nothing else. We stretch our faith to what it cannot possibly explain: sincerely-interested empathetic understanding of the world. The world is us. We are the world. Change it.