On Mazes and the LIS Degree

The difference between a labyrinth and a maze is a center. In a maze there's an exit, there's a goal. A maze has no center, it's about the terrestrial goal. The echoing chambers and the walls of ivy or stone or corn are an obstacle. A labyrinth has a center. A maze is something you go through, a labyrinth is something you go to.

What does this have to do with Liberal Studies? It's a question. A standard degree, one that focused upon a vocational or marketable skill, is a maze. If we had some kind of machine that could implant the knowledge without all this hustle and bother, all the better.

A Liberal Studies degree then, is . . ? Because going into this, you have to know that the journey is at least if not more important than the destination. If we had a certainty about exactly what we wanted, why we wanted it, and where that life goal fits than we would simply take that path. Instead, we LIS students opt out to wander the halls of knowledge at our own pace and direction.

I don't know what the best way for people to live is. There are too many outlooks, and I've seen too many people ruin themselves trying to live up to the ideals of others to think that we've found "the best" way to live yet.

That, I suppose is the method to the madness of this degree. It's about internal learning and self-discovery as much as it's about external knowledge acquisition. It's also why I don't think I would have fit in anywhere else. If you can handle the introspection, and have an idea about where you'd like to take yourself, I'd highly recommend the course for those considering it.

In the beginning there was a post, and it rambled

In general, in first post blog situations such as we now find ourselves, the in vogue thing to do is admit utter ignorance. From "I'd never thought I'd be a blogger" to sheepish admissions of "I have no idea what to write, and this sort of self-involvement is at opposite ends to my true nature" there's a popularity for admissions of amateurism in the intro posts to just about any blog.

But I'm not going there. Don't suppose that I think myself above any other poster, I'd never partake in (or at least never admit) to any such egocentricity. Instead, a little too honestly I suppose, I admit that I'm no stranger to the tap-tap keys of these public semi-diaries. This is in point of fact my fourth blog.

The difference in this one, at least so I have it in mind, is that this shall have a purpose put past my randomly assigned rambling and ranting (this first post being the exception rather than the rule, I assure you). Think of this as a public work journal for my continuing education, and if something I happen to be musing about from one class or another or an altogether other experience happens to spark your interest, all the better.

The topics will focus on politics, poetry in specific or literature in general, philanthropy, public service, and/or whatever subject I'm ingesting in work or leisure at the University of Illinois. You can expect something actually constructive towards this aim in my next post. Till then fellow salty explorers of the inter-sea.