Mindfulness of Walking, or Borgmann

tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap

these feet on Missoula sidewalks.

tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap
why am I listening to this tonight?
Borgmann.

The great man spoke tonight.
I invited and was joined by my friend Ali.
I was rapt, held upon nearly every word.

tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap
this city is surprisingly loud at night.
Cars’ wheels on pavement,
trucks:
the older,
the louder.

Then a car with an engine
like a wind-up toy;
studded tires like tacks
falling onto the floor in rhythm.

Cold air not so cold tonight.

As I walk I seem to miss every light,
but traffic is… Missoula, so it’s okay.

Mind wandering, remembering Kelly
the old philosophy-friend
reunited.
By Borgmann.

Ali spotted her after the talk.
She, now working in Tibet,
my jaw dropped.

Reminiscing on Hegel, Sherman’s Hegel.
(class, that is)
We laughed about his use of the
blow-up doll,
to explain Sense-Satisfaction.

Then a beer, just Ali and I.
tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap

Offices for Lease,
even we
are not unscathed by this economy.

Then I think of the homes here.
Beautiful homes.

Over a beer Ali and I made plans:
finish our Kant papers,
more focal practices,
dinners, and the likes.

Just one block to go.
A cat crosses my path. A black one.
No, not black.
Just dark in dim city lights..

I pass him, he is black.
Cowering, now running,
and cowering again, watching.

I pay no mind, as the
tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap
tap, tap
brings me

Home.

Life should always be so sweet. But it isn’t. Not even close. Dr. Albert Borgmann’s lecture tonight was marvelous. Perhaps he has grown clearer, or perhaps I have grown softer to his words these last couple years, but the last couple of times that I have seen him I feel were his best talks ever.

Tonight’s topic was “Politics and the Pursuit of Excellence.” His general statement was that we need both excellence as citizens to inform our lives in the world and that politics must both be informed by this and must also support it. None of us can stand on the sidelines, a position of political ‘neutrality’ toward virtues is untenable.

As it is, he pointed out, our culture has some obvious problems. 2/3 of Americans are over weight, 1/3 are obese, he noted, along with a string of statistics demonstrating that most Americans couldn’t pick Japan out on a map, or know how long it takes for the earth to go around the sun and so on. I think of my own many ignorances, my many potentials left unexplored.

It’s not that Americans are lazy or dumb, but that our culture rewards us with easy consumption of food and entertainment that we are evolutionarily geared toward seeking. Our society today simply gives us more rewards than is good for us. We are capitalism’s “collateral damage.”

Dr. Borgmann asked us to think of ourselves as parents of a four year-old girl and to ask what we would want of her life. He suggests we would ALL, no matter our background or beliefs or anything else, want our daughter to have:

1. knowledge – she should understand the world around her. Everything from politics to the basics of astrophysics.
2. athleticism, a sense of joy and comfort in her body.
3. friends, genuine companions in life’s journey, and marriage, the ability to join in the deepest, and sometimes most difficult of human bonds. And finally,
4. A sense of the sacred in this world, be it the Eucharist or humanity or mother earth. A sense of something truly greater than…

He then discussed how each of these were analogous to the classical virtues of wisdom, courage, love, and grace. The question we must ask is “HOW DO WE make it happen?”

For wisdom we must start with the basics. Give knowledge. Create some standards, some list of those things that ONE MUST KNOW (like geography, geology, basic physics, and evolution and history).

In dealing with courage it can be difficult. Our culture today makes quick fixes and easy-outs the norm. Practically nobody these days is really courageous. What we must do is construct an environment (for ourselves as much as our 4 year-old) that pushes us to go beyond ourselves in whatever ways we can. And to do this on a regular basis. Unless we are pushed, complacency will set in. It is our responsibility to ensure that it doesn’t.

To construct a more friendly, loving culture, Dr. Borgmann suggested working toward a calmer world. One in which face to face interaction is the norm, where we have the time to really get to know one another and build relationships. He was also eloquent in noting that we should support the union of marriage in all people, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual [or, I would note, bisexual, transgendered, etc].

For grace, we must understand that religiousity or the sacred is but one aspect of culture, on par with many others. That is, my religiousity or sacred is on par with many others. Dr. Borgmann spoke about creating venues that are open to all on the same level. That is, for a community to better actualize the grace it has, it must open up to varied religiousities. He noted that this would include Catholics, deep ecologists, and humanists, all on the same level.

Finally, he discussed how Civic or political virtues could mesh with the above personal or private virtues.

He suggesed a shorter list of three:

1. Justice/fairness: ensuring the basics of human liberty and rights
2. Stewardship: showing care on concern for nature
3. Attention to Design: understanding that the very layout of our society influences how people behave.

Our society shapes our lives and our lives shape our society. It is a mistake, again, for any of us to sit on the sidelines and let others dictate the shape of our cities. We did this in Missoula once and ended up with a concrete wasteland of heavy traffic and box-stores. Some cities allowed it to go so far that their downtowns, once the life-blood of their communities, have become empty and bankrupt. We in Missoula have also been amazingly fortunate to have mayors and city councils who have worked to preserve open spaces, walkable and bikable neighborhoods, and venues for community gatherings. The work doesn’t end there though: we must care for our states, our nation, our world.

To me, the talk, and so much of Dr. Borgmann’s philosophy, amount to a clarion call for greater acceptance of our personal responsibility for our world, no matter who we are or where. There have always been forces of evil, or mara, or just ignorance or foolishness. Pointing at them and raising a fuss is sometimes helpful, but often the most important work we can do is on ourselves. So… Let’s get to work.