What makes life worth living?

Our Experienced Leaders Initiative cohort started the second day in the Sterling Memorial Library (SML) noted as the centerpiece of Yale's Gothic Revival campus. Matthew Croasmun asked us "How do we lean into the worthiness of our lives?" Yikes, that seemed a big to start the morning. He used the metaphor of a diver diving deeper as you think about the first level of actions being auto-pilot/habits, going deeper to Effectiveness/Strategy (Is what we are doing getting us what we want?), and deeper to Self-Awareness/Vision (What do we really want?), and finally descending to Self-Transcendence/Truth (What is worth wanting?)

Using this model to examine my life, I spent much of it in the Effectiveness/Strategy space diving deeper to Self-Awareness/Vision from time to time. I prided myself in being able to accomplish whatever I set my mind out to do, and was rewarded in work and play for reaching my goals. Unfortunately, I haven't spent any time in the Self-transcendence/Truth space. Matthew suggested this is focusing on something outside of self, and that it is my responsibility to answer the question of "What is worth wanting?" through the process of normative inquiry or "What ought to be, not what is." He also asked, "Who do you answer to beyond self?" He asked "What are you going to do in your life to get to the deeper level?" He suggested reading and reflecting would be a first good step, and also utilizing resources such as the Yale Life Worth Living website.

From this discussion, we moved to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to view a curated collection of archives put together to inspire the cohort. The collection included Frederick Douglas's papers, original papers printed for the suffrage movement, and the Gutenberg Bible, an edition of the Latin Vulgate printed in the 1450s by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz (Holy Roman Empire) The picture above is a second edition of Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy dated 1742.

We were asked to think about the traditions we had been raised, and instead of seeing traditions as constraints, begin to picture them as capacity givers. Tradition is not a strait jacket but liberating. I thought through my traditions of growing up Catholic, being from a big family, being an American with traditions from holidays and Super Bowls. Just because I have done something in the past, doesn't mean I need to heed to doing it again and again as I consider a worthy life.

I spent a little time trying to consider a

Life Worth Living

1. Seeking Equality

2. Being for others

3. With dignity

4. Inclusive

5. Sharing my gifts

The rest of the day was fantastic with a Writing to Think session with Stephanie Dunson, PhD. She told us we don't learn (gain wisdom) through experience, we learn from reflecting on the experiences. (This is what I hope to do through this blog.) She talked about learning to use writing as a tool for thinking. She called it Reflective Writing and said it needs to happen free hand not on a keyboard (whoops:-). She said to let the writing meander, allow it to surprise you, and lead you.

Reflective wring guidelines are:

1. Pen/paper

2. Don't worry about grammer

3. Keep the pen going.

4. Use the full amount of time allocated.

5. Let the writing lead your thinking.

6. Don't resist tangents.

7. Preserve all reflective writing ideally in the same place.

The next exercise was to practice free writing with a prompt of "Giving where you are now, what is the most unlikely or surprising image of you from the past.". This took me to places I never expected. I remembered a picture I saw of myself as an awkward 14 year old standing at the entrance of a church in Lebanon, Oregon with my sisters. It was after my cousin's wedding. She was marrying at 18 years old. Seeing this shy, afraid teen ager on the stairs of a church scared me, as that is not who I became. I wrote, " I am afraid that I will get stuck in a life I don't want in the little town I am growing up in, when my hope is to have a big life, one that is remembered, one that impacts others, one that stands out.

We ended the day with Ellen McGrit who taught us the difference between looking and seeing. She told us the key to everything is to deeply observe the world. She helped us understand the practice of observation, and how to see the ordinary as spectacular. She talked to us about being curious instead of judgmental, coming at something from a different viewpoint, and spending the time to see the message. Next, we went into the Yale University Art Gallery, the oldest college art museum in America. We were asked to pick a picture that makes us uncomfortable and to sit with it and observe it for 10-15 minutes. What do we see? This practice should help us as we begin to really see what the work needs now (is love sweet love).

Then onto dinner at a Chinese Restaurant to celebrate Chinese New Year (The Year of the Snake).