Is this the last one?!?!?!? for reals?!?!??! what am I going to blog about after this?!?!?!

“The scandal of the evangelical mind prompt one”

Attending a Christian college does not automatically apply the “life of the mind” to a person. It is not just what you learn that is important but how you look at it. While a good college will try it’s best to frame the knowledge with a Christian worldview, it takes action on the learners part to decide how they will look at it. I can take an economics class and only see boring numbers while the professor constantly shows the importance of economics in relation to life and Christ. In order to have “life of the mind” one must themselves build this Christian framework and choose to look through it. A professor can guide them, but only you can walk through the door. However, looking through this framework is much easier with a professor who works with you rather than one who merely teaches the facts. For this reason, how the subject is taught and handled by a college is nearly as important as to how the person themselves looks at the subject. Another thing that can hinder the “life of the mind” is if the college isn’t liberal arts, or has a poor liberal arts program. If one merely learns about their selected major, then they have a very narrow focus and participate in the scandal. Sorry for this boring and meaningless prompt. The reading did not affect my opinion on this topic nor do I find this topic important to me at the moment. I have much bigger things to spend time worrying/meditating about.

1) What is the base to this framework?

2) Why is it called “life of the mind” sorry, just a picky question. 

The greatness know as being good... also a list of amazing things.

            Alright, intrinsic good. What is it, examples, and how have I experienced it? Challenge accepted. Intrinsic good is, as everyone says, something that is good for its on basic sake. I’m not sure exactly how to rephrase this. It just is what it is. It is something that just makes life better by being there, not doing something. The mountains cause great harm for people trying to climb them, or pass them, but they are intrinsically good because of their beauty, their presence, and power. Without intrinsic good, a person would never be content, never reach that “inner piece” everyone strives for. Ok you want examples, I’ll give you examples.

Puns- “barges? Barges? We don’t need no stink’in barges!”

Christmas lights

Accents

Inside jokes

Popcorn

Corndogs

Pets- my fish Finnick Odair Buxman and dogs =)

Finnick Odair =)- READ THE HUNGER GAMES!!!!!

HUNGER GAMES!!!!!!!!!!

Snow

Owls

Trees

People who climb trees

Cheese

Icicles

Music- More recently The Airborne Toxic Event and the Decemberists

The feeling of clothes fresh out of the dryer

Lighting!!!! I really want to make Tesla Coils!!!!!!

Castles

Greek Mythology

            And now a personal experience. Let’s meet my best friend and his girlfriend Alex and Megan. Alex has been my best friend for a couple months and my friend for a little over a year. Megan has been my friend for 8 months, and Alex’s girlfriend for 3 months. (all dates are approximate ish) Since we all go to the same school, though different grades, we spent uber amount of time together. Since Greeley was boring, we spent a lot of time hanging out in parks just lying in the grass and talking. Now here is where the intrinsic part comes in. Our favorite thing to do was to lie in the grass at night, wrap up in blankets and just look at the stars and clouds. We didn’t talk about how the stars could help our lives; we just said “wow those are amazing. Isn’t God great.” The last night I spent in college, we did this. We went to our favorite park and laid down by the lake to stare at the amazing starry sky. After an hour or so we started playing our favorite songs on my Iphone and basically spent the last couple hours together admiring God’s creation. That’s what intrinsic good is and I remember God, as well as my friends, every time I look in the sky and see Orion’s Belt. I sure hope this makes sense.

Ok now the questions. What exactly makes something unitrisictaly good?

            How much of our life should we focus on the intrinsic aspect and how much on the usefulness aspect of something?

For the wierd super smart French man

Response to the first question.

            Freire proposes some very radical and interesting ideas towards education. He describes education as a place where students and teachers are on the same level and they teach each other. They are part of the world and make it what is. This is in contrast to the “banking” education method where teacher spew facts and expect students to memorize and not question them. I’m not sure Freire actually changed my definition but he changed my view on it. While I still believe education is the process where students are taught the concepts of life, I never really saw its purpose in regards to the entire world besides just a stepping stone to life. Feire taught me that education can radically change how a society thinks and acts. If one is taught simply to regurgitate, then that’s all they do and the pattern increases and society stands still and no advances are made in technology. If one is thought to question, to think, and to act, then society increases in leaps and bounds. While there is a place for the teacher to be higher than the student, class should also be full of discussion and questioning. Where would we be in Newton never asked why apples fell or if Franklin never asked what would happen if he put metal keys on a kite in a lighting storm? Floating around the Earth and getting struck by lightning, that’s where. 

The near perfect college

   The college nearly for me: thus is the description of St. John’s college. I am in love with books.

Everyone who knows me well know that I am taking all my spare moments either reading or climbing trees. St. John’s reading program is exactly what I would love. Sitting around talking about Plato’s Apology, Homer’s Odyssey, or Roger Green’s Fable of Troy sounds like heaven! It also sounds like Honors Western Civ. 1. We sit around a table, receive a brief lecture on the time period around the book, then discuss what the book says. This formula, while not exactly like St. John’s, is what works the best for me. It fits perfectly in that zone of proximal development. It requires just enough output from me to keep me interested, but also just enough difficulty to keep me thinking. Sadly, this is the only class I have that works this way. All my other classes, except Honors Orientation, have one textbook where we read it before class, then are taught the exact same stuff in a long boring, probably sleep filled, lecture. I hate it. As I was reading through St. John’s description (4 years of Ancient Greek, no lectures, 1-8 faculty-student ration, etc.) I wondered why I never applied there, minus the exception that they wouldn’t teach my major. I even considered transferring, but I looked a bit closer and saw something I completely forgot about; the Professors lecture us because they actually know what they are talking about. While it’s great and very important that we spend time in discussion, we also need to be taught and lectured because we aren’t all knowing being like God.

Tis the end of the book. sad, I was starting to love it.

Here be the words of Shane slathered upon a page. I don’t do well with new people. I’m not much of a conversationalist and I tend to say/do stupid things when I’m nervous or tired. I typically try to avoid hanging with people I don’t know well because I feel like I’d be a nuisance or a burden to them. I love it when people come talk to me though. If someone takes the time to come over and say hi, that’s someone I could be friends with and talk to. In light of these circumstances, I didn’t do what I was asked for this prompt. However, I know perfectly well what it’s like to meet new people randomly. For me it’s very awkward and I tend to shut up like a clam. My hands usually are connected and start fidgeting, drawing intricate webs per say. I don’t speak unless asked to and I certainly don’t ask questions. This only takes place when I am in a relaxed environment. If I was in class and I was put with people I don’t know for a group, I work just fine. I’m still nervous but I tend to lead the conversation and distribute ideas. The difference is that I don’t actually have to “meet” these people, just work with them. Thus ends the random ramblings of Shane Buxman.

Last one of September!!!

I feel that a lot of people expect a lot of me out of life. I try to be funny with friends, try to sound smart in bible study, and try to keep my happy face on at all times. I’ve recently discovered I’m very good at these performances but they aren’t me. I’m usually not that funny, I don’t have much at all to give in bible study, and there have been plenty of times where I just want to fall apart. I think this is true of a lot of people. We all try to be other people depending on our peers. We try to fit in with our friends; try to be smart in class (whether by talking a lot or not speaking at all), and we try to act strong like nothing affects us. We are a people who want to be accepted by all. We need to be a people who want to be accepted by the One. Saying how to perform for Him is to easy. It’s just simply acting in a way that pleases Him and wanting His will for us. If only acting that out was that easy. I honestly don’t know how to perform just for God and I’m not even sure it’s possible but I think we all need to make the attempt and find that path on our own.

Q’s

            1) How can we be sure of God’s calling (secondary) for us?

            2) What separates a good daydream from a bad one besides the obvious of if it glorifying to God or not?

Sorry it's late!!!

               

            One of the hardest things to do in life is to keep it balanced. We must balance family life and work, friends and family, balance oneself, or even the checkbook. One may even say life is a balancing act.  This “balancing act” transmits into our faith just as it does into the rest of our life. Oswald Chambers comments on the balance between honoring God and serving Him. He mentions how we, as Christians, can become to obsessed with trying to serve God and often lose sight of our purpose, to worship Him. God created us to love and praise Him. While we worship him in multiple ways, we need to branch out to other types of praise as well. For me personally, I am, what is called, a naturalist. I worship God by marveling at his creation and love being immersed in it, particularly stars. However, I have the hardest time worshipping him any other way. I hate singing praise songs, I never focus on serving for God rather than for me, and I keep forgetting to have quite times. I am very unbalanced in my Christian life and so are many college kids. All the pressure for us to try our best just takes up all our time. We spend hours studying, working, and volunteering so that we can leave college ready for the real world, but in all this we forget how important God is and that he wants us to spend time with him instead of spending time for him. Again we have to be cautious and not spend all our time with him instead of for him. Our life requires a careful balance between these two.

            1) Can anyone actually be successful?

            2) If we don’t live/ believe the words in a “praise” song, should we still sing it or should we keep silent at that line?

Post number 3!

(I’m super sorry this is so long!!!! I just got so into writing!!!)
The hardest question for me to answer is what do I want. Many look at this and see nothing particularly hard. “I want food, money, fame, love, acceptance, etc.”, but my answer isn’t any of there. In fact, I have no clue what my answer is. I know the cliché Christian answer is that, “I want whatever God wants“, or something along those lines, but I don’t think I can even claim to that. Don’t get me wrong, I feel like I have a purpose for my life, I just don’t think I know it yet, nor will know it till it’s already upon me. Life is about overcoming struggles but there are plenty of those times where we don’t even notice we are struggling. We are just living our lives and clinging to that fake world of stability. We don’t like to suffer so we many of us refuse to believe that we actually are. As a result, many people don’t get what they want. They fail their dreams and cling “to remembrance of perfection like most do after they break it”*, to quote a Relient K song. That’s why I don’t have a want, so my dreams aren’t crushed and God can use me without my own passions getting in the way.
(Man you just love these tough personal questions…)
One of my favorite aspects of myself is my love for kids. For some odd reason, God has just put this joy in my heart whenever I’m around and playing with them. I think this started through my church’s vacation bible school (VBS) program. I probably went once in my elementary years but I decided I wanted to help in the summer before 6th grade. I was assigned as a game helper, which was fantastic because I just played games all day morning long. I came back my 8th grade year as a group helper. The kids were split into groups and would travel around to all the different locations and such for their activates. One older person was put in charge of the group with one or two helpers. I really loved this job because I got to be with the same kids all week instead of seeing each one for about five minutes a day. The following year I was, again, a helper but my Junior year, I finally got to be a group leader. It was this year that it really struck me how much I love working with kids. I had a misfit group of a bunch of kids from different age groups who all got kicked out of other groups because they were to large. Everyday I’d have someone new, another kid or a helper, and we’d all just have a lot of fun. One of my favorite mementos is my group picture of that year. I wish I could describe to you how much that week meant but I just can’t get it in words.
Before I go super way over my word limit, I have to talk about Brandon. Last year I started volunteering in the preschool at my church. Now this kid, Brandon, just kind of attached himself to me. At first I thought he was just a really nice kid but one day his sister came in. She asked me if he was being all crazy like usual and I gave her a confused look. She then descried to me how Brandon is usually off the walls and doesn’t pay attention to other teachers and I was just speechless. Brandon had been super respectful for me and he made sure the other kids his age listened to me too. Just the other night, his mom e-mailed me and told me how Brandon kept asking where I was and how he got so excited when he found out he was going to the same school building as me.
Kids are just part of my passion now. While I’m getting a degree in secondary education, I’m still very much interested in helping with the younger kids.

* “Curl Up and Die” by Relient K.

Memory blog.

My memory by Shane Buxman
One of my least favorite things about myself is that I can hardly remember events in my life. However, one event has stuck out, the earthquake in Haiti. Out of all my memories, I can recall this one perfectly for the length on the quake. I was watching a movie on the balcony with my two brothers and sister. The movie was “rat race” and it was at the part where Whoopee Goldberg’s character was in the sonic car. As the room started to shake, we all just thought it was a truck. It went on for a couple seconds before I realized something wasn’t right. The thought “earthquake popped into my brain and I knew exactly what to do. I ran to find a table. I ran down the stairs and met our mastiff about half way. He was freaking out trying to stand, I continued into the kitchen where I saw the fridge spilling stuff everywhere, I could have sworn it was going to fall, I paused for a moment trying to remember where the table was, turned left, paused in the next room again, then turned left and dove under the table. I crouched under it as I watched the bookshelves fall and our freezer shake. I couldn’t here anything except the roaring and all I was focused on was watching the books fall. Finally it ended and I came pout of the table and walked outside where I saw my siblings run. I still heard nothing (why my family say they heard tons of screaming), and then my brain goes back into super spotty mode. I’m sure I remember this because it was one of the few times I can recall nearly dieing. I remember my other near death instances just the same but this one was the longest.
1)What happens in our brain that causes us to remember some things and not others?
2)Why does fear create such clear cut memories in one person, but blocks out the memory in other people?

Response to Danielle Sallade's essay

By Shane Buxman
In Danielle Sallade’s essay, “Human Flourishing”, she describes a normal college student’s life as full of work, study, involvement, work, etc. All this amounts to college kids exercising so much control over their lives that become burnt out. Sallade condemns this type of lifestyle for a Christian and I have to agree with her.
For one, this control is man trying to earn praise by man’s standards, which is completely against what we should be doing. We were created to praise and love God and to follow His will. If God wants us to have a high paying job or be the president of the United States, then He will get you there. One doesn’t have to join every club, sacrifice days of sleep, and sacrifice personal time with God in order to make this goal for God wants you to focus on Him and He will get you there. If God wants you to volunteer as a teacher full time, He will provide the food and necessities that you will need as long as you focus on Him.
God wants us to work so that we can praise Him with our hands, but He also wants us to rest so that we can praise Him with our hearts. If we are constantly going, we don’t make time for a quite time with God and without this quite time, one will quickly burn out and find no joy in their success. Our greatest success in life, as Christians, is to live God’s will, not to have a lot of money at the expense of our sanity.