THINKER'S ALMANAC - November 2

As victorious generals paraded through the streets of Rome, something was whispered in their ears to keep them humble.  What was it?

Subject: Mortality - Memento Mori

Event:  National Write Your Own Epitaph Day

Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back. -Marcus Aurelius

It’s the one universal, the one reality that all must face.  Whether rich or poor, a king or a commoner, we all are mortal.  Everyone dies.  Or, as Jim Morrison said, “No one gets out of here alive.”  There’s an ancient story that comes to mind called “The Appointment in Samarra”:

A merchant in Baghdad sent his servant to the public market. When the servant returned, he approached his master trembling with fear.  “Master,” he said, “When I was in the marketplace, I was jostled by a woman in the crowd.  I turned and saw Death looking at me in the face, and she made a threatening gesture towards me.  Please, Master, please allow me to take one of your horses and flee from this city to Samarra so that death will not find me and so that I can avoid my fate.”  The merchant granted his servant’s request, and within minutes the servant was galloping away to Samarra.  Next, the merchant went down to the marketplace and saw Death standing in the crowd.  The Merchant approached Death and asked, “Why did you make a threatening gesture toward my servant?”  Death replied incredulously, “That was not a threatening gesture; it was a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see your servant in Bagdad because I had an appointment with him today in Samarra.”

Some, like the merchant, try to forget or avoid this inevitability; however, there is an ancient tradition of embracing it, not to be morbid but instead to be proactive.

In the Roman tradition, it’s known as memento mori, and it’s even on the calendar:  January Third.  In Latin, memento mori translates, “remember that you must die.”  The phrase was put to use in ancient Rome to prevent leaders from falling prey to hubris.  When a Roman general was paraded through the streets after a victorious battle, a slave was strategically placed behind the general in his chariot.  As the general basked in the cheers of the crowd, the slave’s job was to whisper in the general’s ear:  “memento mori” or “Someday you will die” (1).

The Stoic philosophers embraced memento mori as a reminder of life’s transience and of the importance of making each minute count.  Instead of fearing death, philosophers like Epictetus tried to reframe it, saying, “Death and pain are not frightening, it’s the fear of pain and death we need to fear.”  For centuries, an entire genre of artwork has been produced around the memento mori theme, usually depicting a skull and an hourglass (2).

                                                        Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay 

Memento mori is not just for Roman generals or Stoics, however.  After he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, Apple Founder Steve Jobs gave a moving commencement address at Stanford University, reminding graduates that facing our mortality is no morbid exercise; instead, it is motivating:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. 

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.  (2)

One sure way to face mortality is to take a walk in a cemetery, perusing the gravestones and reading the epitaphs.  Today, November 2, is the perfect day for such a ruminative stroll because it is National Write Your Own Epitaph Day (3).  It’s a day to remember your mortality but also to consider what words you will leave behind to the living.  How might you distill the wisdom of your life into a single concise aphorism?

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is Memento Mori, and how did Steve Jobs use it to motivate himself?

Challenge - Words To Leave Behind:  Do some research on epitaphs.  Then, carefully craft your own epitaph.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

November 2, 1898:  On this day in 1898 a medical student at the University of Minnesota became the first cheerleader.  College teams had pep clubs and fight songs prior to 1898, but after his school’s football team had suffered a three-game losing streak, Johnny Campbell took the radical step of grabbing a megaphone and running down onto the field.  Once there, he turned to the crowd and led them in a rousing cheer: "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-U-Mah! Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Minn-e-so-ta!"   Minnesota won the game, and thus began the tradition of on-field cheerleading.  Interestingly cheerleading remained primarily a male endeavor until the 1940s. As college students, U.S. Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush led cheers at their respective schools.  Only when the male student body became depleted because of World War II did cheerleading squads become primarily female (4).

Sources: 

1-Crosby, Daniel. Memento Mori – The Ancient Roman Cure for Overconfidence. 7 Nov. 2013.

2-Jobs, Steve.  Death is Very Likely the Single Best Invention of Life.  The Guardian. 10 Oct. 2011.

3-Nationaltoday.com “Plan Your Epitaph Day – November 2, 2021.”

4-http://www.varsity.com/event/1261/being-a-cheerleader-history

THINKER'S ALMANAC - November 1

How can metaphors influence a person’s thinking about the stock market?

Subject: Language - Agent Metaphors or Object Metaphors

Event:  Metaphors We Live By published, 1980

Love is friendship set to music.  -Jackson Pollock

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.  At night, the ice weasels come. -Matt Groening

In the two quotations above, the idea of love is framed very differently, not just in words but in metaphors.

On this day in 1980, the book Metaphors We Live By was published.  In the book, cognitive linguist George Lakoff and philosophy professor Mark Johnson challenge the reader to view metaphors as much more than just a poetic device.  Instead, the authors argue that metaphors are essential to the way humans think and the way they perceive the world.  To illustrate, one 2007 study looked at language used to describe the stock market.  The metaphors used were identified as either agent metaphors or object metaphors.  Agent metaphors animate the market as a living being, saying, for example, that “the Nasdaq climbed higher” or “The Dow fought its way upward.”  Object metaphors, in contrast, describe the market in terms of inanimate objects or forces, saying, for example, that “the Nasdaq dropped off a cliff.”  More than just linguistic flourishes or vivid imagery, Lakoff and Johnson argue that these metaphors influence our thinking and frame our perceptions.  In the 2007 study, for example, investors who examined market data were more likely to predict a stock would continue to rise if the data were described using agent metaphors -- as in the stock “climbed.”  Object metaphors -- as in the stock “increased” -- did not have this kind of influence (1).

                                                                Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay 

The message here is that language is not simply a method of expressing thoughts; instead, the relationship between language and thought is much more nuanced.  Perhaps the philosopher Bertrand Russell said it best:  “Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.”

Nothing in language is as powerful as metaphor.  As Aristotle said, “It is metaphor above all else that gives clearness, charm, and distinction to style.”  Through the alchemy of metaphor, writers transform ideas into concrete, vivid images that make readers imagine and feel.  When you use figurative language like metaphors and similes, you set the tone and frame the argument. Positive imagery makes your reader feel and imagine good emotions; negative imagery makes your reader feel and imagine negative emotions.

Shake the dust off a tired idea; use a metaphor or simile to polish it up and make it look and sound brave and brand new. 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How do agent metaphors differ from object metaphors, and why does this distinction matter?

Challenge - Metaphors Be With You:  Generate a list of abstract ideas, such as greed, trust, or ambition.  Then, do a search for some quotations on one of your abstract ideas.  Look for quotations that use metaphors to bring the abstract ideas to life with concrete, showing images.  For example, the American lawyer and orator Robert G. Ingersoll said, “Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.” Select your favorite metaphor and explain how the metaphor makes the abstract idea more concrete.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

November 1, 1866:  On this day, the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky met a very important deadline.  Based on the terms of his contract with his publisher, Dostoyevsky would either deliver his completed novel on November 1, 1866 or his publisher would be given complete rights to his works, without compensation, for the next nine years.  Clearly entering into such a contract was a gamble, but then Dostoyevsky had a reputation as a gambler.  After all, the reason he agreed to a contract with such stark terms was because he was desperate for money to pay off his gambling debts.  When Dostoyevsky began work on his novel on October 4, 1866, he had just 26 days to finish.  To assist him, he hired a stenographer, a woman named Anna Grigorievna whom he would later marry.  They met daily.  Dostoyevsky dictated the story to Grigorievna, and on November 1st, two hours before the deadline, the complete manuscript was delivered to the publisher.  The title of Dostoyevsky’s novel is appropriately The Gambler, and its plot revolves around several desperate characters winning and losing at the roulette table.  Art imitates life as the author’s addiction to roulette is the focus of his novel’s plot (2).

Sources:  

1-O’Mahony, Proinsias.  “Market Metaphors Can Lead Investors Astray.”  Irish Times 20 Sept. 2016. 

2-Nissley, Tom.  Reader’s Book of Days.  New York:  W. W. Norton, 2014:  315.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - October 31

What insights about human nature were revealed by a study of Halloween trick-or-treaters?

Subject:  Human Nature/Deindividuation - Candy Study

Event:  Halloween

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Most social science experiments are conducted in university laboratories, but one classic study from the 1970s was conducted in a suburban neighborhood.

The purpose of the study was to gain some insight into human nature, specifically the honesty of trick-or-treaters as they collected candy on Halloween night.

Each time a child came to the door, a research assistant greeted them, pointed out a candy bowl sitting on a table, and instructed the child to help themselves to a single piece of candy.   The researcher then told the child that she had a chore to complete and left the room.  Unbeknownst to the trick-or-treaters, another researcher was watching through a small peephole and recording which children followed directions and which children let greed overtake them.  The results from eighteen different households on Halloween night revealed that 33.7% of children took more than a single piece of candy.

                                                      Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

The researchers then added one new wrinkle to the experiment:  a mirror.  The mirror was strategically placed next to the candy bowl so that any child approaching the bowl would see his or her reflection.  With the mirror present, candy theft was reduced to only 8.8 percent (1).

In another variation of the study, research assistants asked half the children their names before telling the kids to take one candy and then leaving them alone in the room.  The other half of the kids were not asked their names.  As you might guess, the kids who remained anonymous took more candy than those who volunteered their names.

One conclusion we might make from these studies is that if we want to influence people’s behavior, we should make them identifiable, helping them to both literally and figuratively reflect on what they are doing (2). This approach reduces deindividuation -- the psychological state in which a person acts differently than they normally would either because they are part of a group or because they are anonymous.

A psychological state in which a person acts differently than they normally would either because they are a part of a group or because they are anonymous.

For another Halloween social science study involving trick-or-treaters, see Thinker’s Almanac - April 24

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  With one small addition to this experiment, researchers were able to reduce candy theft to just 8.9%.  What did they do?

Challenge - Who Are You: Halloween is a great day to reflect on who we truly are.  Whether or not we literally put on a mask, we are always dealing with issues of identity.  Do some research on quotations about “identity.”  When you find one that gives you true insight, write it down and explain why it is meaningful to you.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

October 31, 1517:  Today is Halloween, but the most famous individual to approach a door on this date was not dressed in a costume.  The year was 1517, and the man approaching the door was a 34-year-old Augustinian monk named Martin Luther.  The door he approached was not a residence; rather, it was a church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  Instead of knocking on the door, Luther nailed a list of 95 theses to the church door.   It was this single act by one man that sparked a religious revolution called the Protestant Reformation.  In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the dominant church in Europe.  Since Christianity had become the official religion of the Roman Empire in 325 AD, the church had grown in both political and spiritual power.  In 1513 Leo X became Pope and began plans to rebuild St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, the headquarters of the Catholic Church.  To raise funds for this major project, the decision was made to sell indulgences, the church’s promise that an individual could escape God’s judgment in the afterlife in exchange for money in this one. It was the act of selling indulgences as well as other corruption in the church, that sparked Martin Luther’s act of nailing his 95 theses.  As a monk lecturing at the University of Wittenberg in Germany, Luther believed that forgiveness of sins could only come from God and that unchecked power had caused the church to lose sight of its biblical foundation. Luther’s 95 theses, written in Latin, challenged the authority of the Pope, calling for an end to indulgences, corruption, and decadence -- and a return to a proper spiritual focus.  For his act, Luther was charged with heresy and was excommunicated from the church.  Luther’s cause did not die, however.  Aided by the printing press, which had been invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439, copies of Luther’s theses were circulated throughout Europe.  The “protest” movement that resulted became the Protestant Reformation, which spawned numerous Christian sects that rejected the authority of the Roman Church (3).

Sources:

1-Goldstein, Noah J., Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini.  Yes:  50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. New York:  Free Press, 2008.

2-Waxman, Olivia B. “What Trick-or-Treating Teaches Us About Human Nature.” Time magazine 28 Oct. 2015.

3-Marsh, W.B. and Bruce Carrick.  365:  Your Date with History.  Cambridge, UK:  Totem Books, 2004.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - October 30

How might you argue that the most important of all your years of formal education is kindergarten?

Subject:  Personal Philosophy - Credo

Event:  All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, 1989.

Live by this credo: have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations. -Red Skelton

On this day in 1989, Robert Fulghum published his book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.  The book, which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for almost two years, is a collection of short essays, subtitled “Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things.”

Fulghum grew up in Waco, Texas, and before he began writing full time, he was a Unitarian minister and an art and philosophy teacher.

The first essay in Fulghum’s book, called “Credo,” explains the origin of his book’s title.  Fulghum recalls that each spring throughout his life he would sit down and write a personal credo, a list of statements of personal belief.  This list evolved over the years with statements that were sometimes comical, sometimes bland, sometimes cynical, and sometimes over-complicated.  The final version of his credo came to him, however, when he realized that true meaning in life did not need to be complicated.  In fact, he already knew what he needed to know; he had learned it a long time ago in kindergarten. The basic rules he learned like “Share everything,” “Play fair,” and “Clear up your own mess” served him throughout life (1).

                                                                    Image by Kris from Pixabay 

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten has spawned numerous imitations, spinoffs, and parodies based on television shows, movies, books, etc.  These imitations adopt Fulghum’s title and list as their template, beginning with “All I Really Need to Know I Learned From ______,” followed by a list of principles based on the source of inspiration.

For example:

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from My Dog

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Fairy Tales

A further adaptation narrows the learning a bit to a single specific area, as in:

All I Really Need to Know about ___________ I Learned from ___________

One example of this kind of spinoff is a book, published in 2014 by Paul Oyer, Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Economics I Learned from Online Dating.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is a credo, and what makes Robert Fulghum’s credo unique?

Challenge:  Create Your Credo:  How would you finish the following titles, and what principles would you include in your personal credo?  “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in/from ______.”  And “All I Really Need to Know about ___________ I Learned in/from ___________.”

Create your own spin-off of Fulghum’s credo.  Brainstorm some ideas based on books, movies, television shows, the internet, or some other aspect of life that you know well.  Once you have selected a single focus, generate a list of principles that spring from your selected area.  Your list may contain serious insights or humorous insights.  (Common Core Writing 2 – Expository)

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

October 30, 1938:  Listeners throughout the U.S. mistake a radio production of H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds for an actual alien invasion.

Sources:

1-Fulghum, Robert. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. New York:  Ballantine Books, 1989.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - October 29

How did Malcolm X experience the feeling of being truly free while locked up in a prison cell?

Subject:  Literacy Narrative - Malcolm X’s Prison Studies

Event:  The Autobiography of Malcolm X published, 1965

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. -Victor Hugo

Black nationalist leader Malcolm X was born on this day in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. Born Malcolm Little, he considered Little his slave name, so he replaced it with an X to represent the lost name of his African tribal ancestors.

                                                     Malcolm X - Image by WikiImages from Pixabay 

When he was 21 years old, Malcolm was convicted of burglary and received a ten-year sentence.  In prison, Malcolm transformed his life through voracious reading and study. He stopped using drugs and became a member of the Nation of Islam.  After his early release from prison in 1952, Malcolm became a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Like Martin Luther King’s quest for civil rights, Malcolm advocated for racial equality.  However, unlike King’s tactics of nonviolent resistance, Malcolm promoted a more militant approach, saying “There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.” Shortly before he died, Malcolm left the Nation of Islam.  While preparing to give a speech in New York, he was assassinated on February 21, 1965.

In his autobiography, Malcolm recounts the events that led to his education behind bars.  With time on his hands, he attempted to read but due to his limited vocabulary, he could comprehend few of the words on the page.  To remedy this he decided to study a dictionary. Beginning with the letter A, he read and copied by hand page after page and soon discovered that he was learning more than just vocabulary:  “With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually, the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia.”

As his knowledge base and vocabulary grew, Malcolm turned to other books besides the dictionary, reading in every free moment during the day, and well into the night by a small corridor light outside his jail cell.

Talking about his prison studies, Malcolm says:  

I never have been so truly free in my life. . . . the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive . . . . My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  Why did Malcolm X begin reading the dictionary while he was in prison?

Challenge - Your Love Letter to Literacy:  What are some memorable experiences that would be in your autobiography regarding your acquisition of literacy?  What do you remember about learning to read, about learning to write, and about being influenced by books?  Imagine you are writing your autobiography and that it must include a literacy narrative, that is a story of your experiences with learning to read and write.  Write about a specific incident from your life that is related to books, reading, or writing.  Also, consider the people who have influenced your experiences with literacy. 

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

October 29, 1969:  On this day a graduate student at UCLA named Charley Kline established, via telephone, a connection between the UCLA computer lab and the computer lab at Stanford. The message Kline sent that day was the first sent over an Internet connection.  Foreshadowing connection problems to come, the first message that Kline attempted was a single word: “login.” Only the first two letters “L” and “O” were received before the connection crashed.

Sources:

1-The Autobiography of Malcolm X 1965