The story goes on

Welcome back. I know right now, I have no one reading. But it doesn’t stop me from typing up my blog with what I want. For now, this seems like a biography. I think I can get several posts just from my history before I even get close to other posts and where I could go with this blog in the future.  And now, back to my past.

I enjoyed what he did for the class. He treated the class more like a college class, to help prepare us for what we could deal with at a higher level than high school. He also set up his class with specific reading material, as do all English classes. But his was set with literature that more philosophy based. Designed to get beyond the normal way of thinking, to think outside the flow of life, and expand outside the narrow sight so many set themselves into.

The literature that I remember most and had the biggest impact on me was “Allegory of the cave” by Socrates. Side note, I still like to say his name pronounced So-crates, instead of Soc-ra-tes, for the pop culture reference. Back to the story. Short version, men chained in a cave who are fed shadows on the wall. These men believe the shadows are real. One of the men gets released. He discovers the shadows are made by real objects. He eventually discovers the exit of the cave, and the rest of the world. After seeing the world, the man returns to the cave and the other chained men. He tries explaining to them about what he saw, but they do not believe him, since all they know is the shadows. And since they can’t see anything but the shadows, they refuse to believe anything else.

It’s a pretty self explanatory message. But in case you didn’t get it; just because you are told/taught/shown something, does not mean that something you were told/taught/shown is everything and nothing else. Simpler version: don’t take things at face value. Learn to find the cave entrance and live life beyond the shadows in front of you.

I feel this is a good stopping point. Am I done with my 12^th grade English class/experience? No. I think there will only be one more post regarding that. Well, at least at this time I believe so, but only time will tell.