Anti-Intellectualism significantly threatens me. (And if you don’t know what anti-intellectualism is….go look it up heh heh heh) How can a person be against knowledge? I recognize major flaws in our education system, but that does not allow for excuses.

Wealth, success, and popularity, is largely a result of making things faster, bigger, better, cheaper- all beneficial qualities, to an extent. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels daily pressure to cut corners and compensate. Essentially, it’s a Catch-22. In order to reach valuable goals you practically have to subscribe to this way of life, this way of making educational sacrifices. I detest the way I am required to absorb a year’s worth of medical information in just six weeks. This is my only option. But again, the pressure. Again, the competing. I must graduate within this time frame…make this amount of money by 2015. Why must we condense learning? Is an accelerated track really the best choice?

I have reached a point of urging myself and others to challenge this system.

In a time where communicating is minimalistic and learning consists of slashing information and how to crack a test format, it’s very difficult to act outside of the regime. What could we possibly do?

Pick up a non-fiction book. Pick up a newspaper. Read them.
Write letters using the full extent of your vocabulary.
Get out of your corner, your safe-house, and dive into an unknown place.
Find just one topic from your seemingly unnecessary gen-ed course that interests you…and become an expert on it. As Mark Twain said, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Seek knowledge, and “stick it to the man”. It’s not cool to have never read a book in the past five years, or to own all of the most popular items, or to scoff at words and conversations that are beyond your understanding. Who the heck said it was desirable to be ignorant, un-educated, and far from your fullest potential?

Refusing knowledge is simply, and easily, the most dangerous thing you can ever do to yourself.

Be an intellectual.

Last night I was able to attend a concert of one of my favorite bands at the TLA in Philly. Basically this dude from Philly went to Iceland for a trip, heard these guys jam, brought their EP back home and sent in on over to Radio104.5 . Ever since then they have completely swept this city off its feet. Here’s why it’s worth seeing them live:

1. They drink wine on stage.
2. They brought along an unbelievable trumpet player with a great set of lungs. Watch her solo in Little Talks here.
3. Seeing as they were an overnight success here and in the rest of the US, they are adorably humble and showed gratitude and surprise for how well the audience already knew their songs.
4. Their accents.
5. Seeing them use the accordion and trumpet live brought a huge smile to my face, and the drummer was great too.
6. They cover songs from The Cure. (I was in love)
7. Almost all of their songs incorporate “Hey!”s and “La”s making it an ultimate sing-along concert. Felt like i was in some Irish pub.
8. Ragnar and Nanna harmonize beautifully. Plus they, and the rest of the band, have the coolest names.
9. Their music ranges from slow acoustics, to exuberant and loud, to experimental sounding. And they have so much fun doing everything.
10. The stage set-up, personalities, and dress for the band was far from pretentious…and completely random.
11. Arni, the keyboardist’s mother, knitted monster key chains to give away to the audience. They were made from the sheep’s wool on his farm back in Iceland. Super limited edition. Gave me a good laugh.
12. Finally, as my good friend Laura pointed out, their baby-faced guitarist wore a Sailor-type ensemble, which made him look straight out of The Sound of Music. It was perfect.

I’ll end with the last song of the concert..before the encore. Called Six Weeks.

Chuck Klosterman. What a guy. He’s challenging, self-deprecating, and sometimes far-fetched but he gives me a laugh and a life-adjustment sometimes.

He ranges from ridiculous to seriously thought-provoking. If you are easily offended, he might not be your cup of tea but come on:

“Whenever I can’t sleep, I like to lie in the darkness and pretend I’ve been assassinated. I’ve found this is the best way to get comfortable. I imagine I’m in the coffin at my funeral, and people from my past are walking by my corpse and making comments about my demise.”

TO

“We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime. It’s easy. The first girl I ever loved was someone I knew in sixth grade. Her name was Missy; we talked about horses. The last girl I love will be someone I haven’t even met yet, probably. They all count. But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. These are the most important people in your life, and you’ll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years. But there’s still one more tier to all this; there is always one person you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it happens eventually. This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of these loveable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable. The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else, and they’re often just the person you happen to meet the first time you really, really, want to love someone. But that person still wins. They win, and you lose. Because for the rest of your life, they will control how you feel about everyone else.”

I listened to this talk the other day suggested by a former pastor of mine. The title revealed: The power of vulnerability. My first thought? I’m sure it is a decent message, but I don’t really I have an issue with this. And in a lot of ways I’m accurate in saying that. I think this blog is an example of how there’s little hesitation in revealing my thoughts and fears and stressors. But as I continued to listen, I still fall short at living wholeheartedly. I don’t completely fall into that category of people Brene describes. The message lays out a lot of different points and convictions, some that I don’t personally possess, and some that I do. I would encourage anyone to spend the 20 minutes to watch this.

A few things really hit me and they mostly came at the end. First, Brene talks about how we fail at raising our kids today. She believes “you are imperfect and wired for struggle, but you are worthy for love and belonging” and challenges the audience to raise up children with that mindset. Many problems would disappear. And that’s true. I couldn’t help but think how our Father attempts to carry out this commission daily with us. We are sanctified and made clean by Christ’s sacrifice, yet we fail at remembering no extra deeds are required to be made worthy in God’s eyes. We have so much shame that we like to numb and push aside, but as Brene explains, numbing one side of emotion makes it near impossible to experience joy and gratitude as well. God created us to take part in the whole spectrum of emotion. We are merely going through motions, barely living, if we choose to not connect and numb ourselves. That ties in to the final piece that Brene challenges me with:

Live with our whole hearts even if there is no guarantee. To practice gratitude and joy amidst moments of terror. “Just to be able to stop and instead of catastrophizing what might happen to say I’m just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I’m alive.” Wow. I am terrible at this. I have a lot to sort through and transform in these upcoming months. Which is a pain in the butt, and frustrating, but like Brene says after her yearlong battle with vulnerability, “I lost the fight, but probably won my life back.”