Hello everyone, I hope all is well.

The Philosophy class I am currently taking at USCA is doing my mind plenty of good. There's nothing to stoke the old cerebral fires like questions of being and morality and duty.

The downside to all this "edu-mi-cation" is that a semester's worth of information is being heaped upon myself and my fellow students in a mere month. And after 10 years have passed by since I last grabbed a pen in a classroom setting it was hurry up and read for me --  I had to acclimate quickly.

The class has been enlightening, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. My professor, Dr. Dillard-Wright, has opened my eyes - through the "voices of wisdom" (the name of our book) - to many new ideas and thought processes. Many conservatives can find such an environment quite threatening, as they do not like their "right" views challenged. I, while mostly conservative in my beliefs, do not hinder myself in such fashion and instead welcome open dialogue.

I prefer not to be narrow-minded in that way - and yes, I still believe the same things I believed when I started the class.  

Still, with a full-time job, a wife and two small children at home, the idea of a night without 60 pages of philosophy is starting to sound pretty good to me. But I want to finish strong. I have an A average (as best I can figure) at this point with just a paper and the final exam left on the docket.

I am focusing my paper on Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" which is absolute brilliant argument for the use of non-violent resistance.

I look forward to writing it this weekend.

Going back to school has been a trip for real, just not the way I thought about it when I was 19. Instead of seeing myself as having a right to sit in that desk, it's now a priviledge to do so.

I suppose that's the difference in the years that have passed.

A 19-year-old Mike would never have made it in philosophy A102.