So many things I could write about, from philosophy to semi-personal revelations, to happenings. When in such a situation, the best thing to do is to "stick to the facts, baby!" :)

So it is now... Thursday. Time passes much more slowly when one is not harried from place to place every minute. On the other hand, it passes much more quickly when one is asleep, which I have been for an average of 11 hours a day. So I'm sure it all balances out the same. In my other 13 hours each day, I have had my quiet times (which I find to be even more essential with the knowledge of my long stay at home), read books, baked over 20 dozen cookies, done my Christmas shopping, and watched two movies in the theatre. I don't start working for my parents until after Christmas, so I have been taking this week as a mini-vacation to rest as much as I need and just decompress.

One of the most interesting books I'm reading right now is Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy. Boethius wrote this book towards the beginning of the Middle Ages, in an attempt to explain how philosophy is useful to theology, at least when truthfully employed. He wrote it when he was in prison facing hard times, and his protagonist is in a similar situation. The man deplores his ill treatment at the hands of Fate and men. Then Lady Philosophy arrives and consoles him, showing him that nobody arrives in the world with the blessings of temporal fortune anyway, that we surely don't deserve them, and that therefore we should not base our happiness upon them. Interesting, eye-opening argument:
- All men seek happiness as the highest good.
- We do not look on changeable things as the highest good, but rather, look beyond for those things that do not change.
- True happiness comes from unchangeable things.
These unchangeable things are, for a Christian, his creation and his salvation. We always have these; nothing can take them away.
I read this book only a year and a half ago as well, for Middle Ages class at college, but I wanted to read it again, because it is one of the foundational books for the Middle Ages and beyond. Dante and Milton both reference it. It includes the famous image of the Wheel of Fortune, which creates a regular sine wave of ups and downs in a person's life. The interesting thing about this, says Boethius, is that the "down" parts are usually "up" times for spiritual growth. So there are just multiple sorts of good - one temporal, one spiritual - and we are always receiving one of them.
Later on (though I haven't yet reached that place again), Boethius presents a well-known explanation of the free will vs. predestination debate. I don't remember it in detail, which is the main reason I'm re-reading the book.

In short, I highly recommend The Consolation of Philosophy to anyone. It is fairly short - 100 pp? - and a very easy, fascinating read. I am amazed, in fact, that we don't get it in Philosophy class at school, because it really was a foundational medieval work. Anyway, I would love to discuss it with anyone, so please do read it. :)  ¶ 6:52 AM