Getting those brain juices flowing

First, before I say anything at all, let me just inform you of where I'm coming from with this: during the few marvelous days I spent at ski camp up in the French Alps with my MK buddies, the speaker really challenged us to think. Every night we had to take an agree/disagree stance according to what we thought about a statement he'd put up on the screen. Some seemed easy enough, but then I realized the full magnitude of those apparently simple statements, if I chose to pursue the intricate layers of meaning within them. I want to thank my little group of "thinkers", all those who CHOSE to think, chose to "look beyond what you see" in either complicated and far-reaching theological, social, emotional, and all other types of arguments. I still cannot believe that my Logic class actually did me some good! I found out that I was able to grasp some of the main points that we decided on thanks to everything I had learned in that class.

The first night, I must admit, was brutal. I believe that we felt the full force of the simple, two sentences, and we spent hours afterwards, our little group of 5 or so, defining terms, and reaching out, searching for answers, and taking place in some of the most confusing and intricate theological points. It was wonderful to hear how people thought out loud, brining their own perspectives and understandings, little glimpses of the answer as it may, allowing for a very friendly, yet very deep and hard-core discussion. Even our bunny trails led to some of the "10 top discussed doctrinal points."

These few days, I have been challenged to think, to reason, to discuss, to hear and appreciate what others have thought, reasoned, and learned. We covered such diverse topics as what is truth, discussed social problems of this world (poverty. And! how to go about relieving them), and really taxed ourselves to delve further into a topic that I would have done under normal circumstances. These brief little sentences would bring a flow of creative brain juices flowing, and questions and answers swarmed into my mind like a wasps' nest--needling me until I was able to spit some of these thoughts out into the world and hear what others had to say about them.

Even now, after getting home, I can feel that my brain is in a complete stage of "define your terms, think it through, etc." (which is really good, because I have a Logic assignment that I should be doing), and I have already sparked up a few conversations with my Dad.

As much as I hate creating New Year's resolutions (I'll explain in a different post. Too long and answer), I have decided to try and spark more of these thought-provoking statements and toss ideas back and forth with my Dad (it's great how similar we are, and how we both love these sort of things :D) every once in a while, to remind me of how productive and even satisfying thinking can be.