Purpose

The word college derives from the Latin meaning 'colleague'. And what is a colleague, what is the original sense in which we can and should understand it-- someone with whom you 'choose together'. So, college then should be that place where we make choices together, where we discuss, form, and act out our ideals as a community. We try to build that elusive, ephemeral, ethereal body that binds us together merely on the basis of shared principles and acts. It's a lofty goal, but it's what makes us most human.

In my view, choices-- the expression of free will-- are what make us human. Once, I was walking to the bathroom to brush my teeth when I saw a candy bar on my desk, and the thought, the desire overwhelmed me-- instead of brushing my teeth and going to sleep with toothpaste residue on an empty stomach, I should eat that candy bar and fall asleep in warm, sugary satisfaction. And then I laughed, because I realized how ridiculous a proposal that was, but also how real and powerful it was. In abstract and hindsight it seems silly, of course you should brush your teeth, but in that moment I sought quickly to rationalize it away. What's one night without brushing going to do? Don't the gooey chocolate and caramel and momentary sugar high far outweigh any potential long-term gains of brushing?

But I continued to laugh, because it became so clear that this is the purpose of human life. No other creature on the planet faces these questions. Sure, there are reports of overeating in the animal kingdom, but for the most part, every other creature always does--and with tremendous vigor-- exactly what it needs to survive. Only humans place temporary pleasures before long-term gains. And it may seem mundane and ridiculous that our purpose should be to choose brushing our teeth over eating a candy bar, but I believe that's what makes us great. Because it is not the content of the choice that matters, but the fact that we can make it, that we could do otherwise, but we choose principles over pleasures. We choose what is right over all else.

So, that's how I think college curriculum should be oriented, so too in community, and in individual lives-- toward the understanding and enacting of good choices.