Friday, September 5, 2008

I love PBS and President Dallin H. Oaks!!!

Dallas and I decided to not pay for cable while we were in school. it really only takes away from precious studying time. There isn't really anything on that is that great to watch anyway.

Instead we have 'bunny ears', that kinda work. They do pickup the various PBS channels. Did you know they have 4 PBS channels? (create, world, just music, and another one I can't remember) I love them all!!

Today (while making flash cards) I watched an ethics panel called "Ethics of America" debate various ethical problems we run across in our lives. They were things like: would you tell the neighbors wife that her husband is having an affair, would you vote for the same man for the PTA. It was pretty interesting seeing these well known, highly educated people debate these simple things. The best part is that President Dallin H. Oaks was also on the panel of experts!!! What an amazing way to see one of the men we greatly respect talking about the ethics of these somewhat wordly problems. It was very interesting and I loved seeing his wisdom radiate from his demeanor.

I also watched a show where a modern day philosopher explains the philosophies of ancient philosophers!! It was actually quite insightful. He talked about many philosophers including Socrates and tried to interpret their philosophies into our modern way of living.

One philosophy I thought was really interesting was Seneca's philosophy on anger and anxiety toward things that we cannot control in our lives. This particular ancient philosopher said that if we were a little bit more pessimistic about the way our lives play out, we would not be surprised by things that don't quite work out the way we want them to, we wouldn't get angry or upset and in the end we would be happier. He thought you should meditate at the beginning of the day about things that would probably go wrong so that we wouldn't be so upset or surprised when it happened. For instance, I shouldn't be surprised if on my way to school I hit every red light, I have to go on a detour because of construction or a car pulls out in front of me and I get in an accident. It is an interesting way of looking at things. Makes you think...

2 comments:

Andrea Gunnell said...

I think that would be neat to watch President Oaks. I have to say though, that I disagree with that second philosophy. Why would you want to spend time thinking about all of the things that "could" go wrong? I already do that enough. Thinking negative thoughts makes life more negative in my opinion. That's my two cents but I think we should all be a little more optimistic not the other way around:)

Katie said...

Viva PBS!