COLUMN: Life goes on
Driving around Tuesday night, with the window down and Bach blaring, I saw the street lights go out and the sky light up green. It was like a scene from a dream or a foggy memory. My time at Utah State is nearing its end, and it has felt much the same way. I have changed a lot since coming here, yet the last few years are a blurry flashback.
Another semester is over, along with another year of growth, humility and understanding. I came to this school a bullheaded, long-haired war veteran, and a lot has happened since. Universities aren’t just degree factories. Degrees are cheap. You can forge them at Kinkos. Universities are places you learn how to become a better person, and I can’t overstate the impact this place has had on me, my politics, my faith and my understanding of the world.
Of course, life can’t be fully experienced sitting in a library cafe. You have to get out into the world and see how things truly are, both good and bad. That is what I shall be doing yet again this summer, along with many of the people reading this. This old Ninja carpenter will walk off into a summer evening with sword in one hand and books in another, looking for more answers to the world’s absurdities.
What I take with me this semester more than anything is a deeper appreciation for listening in conversation. After several moments of being humiliated by my philosophy professors, namely Dr. Huenemann and Dr. Kleiner, I’ve learned the sage wisdom of keeping my hands down and shutting the hell up.
The core of the current problem of theism and atheism is a lack of understanding, of too few people willing to wait until they truly hear the other person and can respond with substance. Religion today is too much pandering to common desire or reactionary diatribes, and atheism is no better. Here on campus, real conversation has been replaced with blockhead sidewalk chalk writing from both sides, and the religious presence is akin to a bunch of car salesman.
There are too many good and smart people here on both sides whose thoughts are lost in the rabble. Religion should seek truth and should listen for it, not give into the white noise of modern chatter. Faith belongs in the public sphere, and we believers have the responsibility of giving it something to say.
I realize I’m saying this in a public forum and might be just adding to the rabble, but I see faith in trouble from its assimilation into poor culture. Writing here, though, has also taught me that a point can’t always be explained in a 12-line Kantian sentence, and I’ve gained more patience in learning from others how to better my craft. I’ve also learned how much someone’s response to something can reveal about them, whether they’re thoughtful or a jackass or some ball of snakes in between.
So as I pack my ninja bag with knives and pentacles, and look out to another unknown frontier, I bid adieu to a bunch of interesting mountain villagers who had all sorts of ways to teach me about myself. If I return, I will keep myself to the shadows, but do not fear to enter them if you find me. It is in darkness we must listen most, so we can guide others and come out of the wilderness stronger than before. Watch for thickets on your country path, thus speaks the Ninja Jesus.
Will Holloway, aka Ninja Jesus, is a senior in philosophy. Comments can be left at www.ahhietownsquare.com