The Second, First Class

     While The Stranger is a great, thought provoking book that is a fantastic door to begin looking at existentialistic thought and concepts, it was not what stood out the most to me during our class. I have been in many settings where you have a large group of people all trying to engage on one topic, and most of the time that goes well for a short while before people begin to wander and break the atmosphere. This reminded me more of a music clinic, where you have a large group of musicians coming together in a small room where the only “disturbance” is a well stated and respectful disagreement arises on the best approach to master a technique. Where so much of the group is engaged and curious how one thought may lead off the next or how someone will react when their view is challenged with a question; how someone questioning someone else’s view that you thought had no connection to your own suddenly breaks that notion by making you question your own. Where it is a collective thought as opposed to a forum for one to wait until they have their turn to speak.

     I think what makes this scenario so interesting and refreshing is that it can really only come when people begin to let go of their ego. To allow empathetic concepts to take over to a degree, or as completely as perceivably possible. For this to be our first true class, and so many people that are new to the concepts, many even new to “adulthood” or being on their own, and to be able to fill almost 3 hours with over one hundred people with a very engaged, interested and positive atmosphere with a lot of great input, it made me very happy to be a part of the class. I am still quite surprised at just how many people volunteered the input right from the beginning and how it grew even more by the end of the class. That has definitely never been the typical situation I have found. There were many strong opinions of the content, which often leads to a sorting of the herd, where only the loudest and most forceful are left standing or even interested at the end. When that wasn’t the case, and people willingly took a back seat to listen to other views and give a moment to actually consider those views as well. For that to happen even when there were disagreements about a concept or theory, and a couple “baby” closers thrown out there, was nice.

      However, if I had to point out a specific time when I thought the veil was about to be pulled and Gamera would be the blushing bride to bring this party to its end, I would have to say the path of evolution. In these discussions, I have known three almost instant killers of atmosphere, respect and continued interest: politics, evolution and religion. After it continued to travel the route of disagreement beyond its initially intended point and became a matter of facts and literal meaning denouncing the traction of the point (whether valid or not), some of the wind began to leave my sails. That was certainly not the case on this voyage though, reason prevailed and the discussion was able to find a medium that at least left that yard and got back to other ways to express the intent so the group could understand collectively (though not in full agreement, obviously) and continue the questions and analysis.

     For all of these things, I would really just like to thank the class for apparently being in this class to broaden your views and have a genuine interest in the concepts presented. For being willing to throw your views out there, even if it was just a start and your weren’t entirely sure where to go once you started but still spoke up and continued to so you could find the places that worked for your present mentality.  I really hope this is a true precursor to the rest of our semester together. I apologize if this is not easy to build off of exactly, however, this is what has stuck with me over the last two days and more than anything is what I took from the class. Are there any others in the same boat as I am in? Anyone who maybe disagrees and felt a greater detachment from “the group” instead?