Lancelot Schaubert's Blog, page 82

“Sanguine”

Breelyn Shelkey over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

People are beautiful

give them a chance.

Not everyone is out to get you

Strangers bring light into the darkest places

Play.

Laugh.

Keep a tight grip on childish emotions.

Stay excited

Fuel the fire

Fall.

Hard.

Plunge into love.

Spoil your dreams

Seek out the good in people

            Indulge.

                        Humor.           

Fiction is fraud

Grass is green

The cup is full

            You.

                        Me.

We are exactly where we are meant to be.

Triple take,

breathe every second

of every twinkling.

The stars fasten as the world falls apart.

Read more posts like "“Sanguine”" at The Showbear Family Circus.

Home from Chores

Gerard Sarnat over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

Swing open cabin
door, walk alone on forest
path or with my wife.

Read more posts like "Home from Chores" at The Showbear Family Circus.

What do we mean by moral law?

Lancelot Schaubert over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

A few have asked in recent days what we mean when we say “moral law” or “virtue” or “moral philosophy” in the liberal arts. It seems, very often, that an oft repeated lie gets turned into the truth of the minds of those who have not studied broad enough or deep enough. A broad reading of the keystone works from every culture — or a deep reading of the keystone texts of one’s own culture — will present something like the Tao or moral law. We present this appendix from Dr. Lewis’s Abolition of Man as a sampling from around the world of the core tenets of Natural Law.

We encourage you to bolster the selection below by commenting with citations from an ancient text of your choosing whether legal, poetic, mythic, or religious that arose from your own culture. I think you’ll find these basic tenets represented in every culture around the world.

from “The Abolition of Man” —

Illustrations of the Tao — moral law or natural law:

The following illustrations of the Natural Law are collected from such sources as come readily to the hand of one who is not a professional historian. The list makes no pretense of completeness. It will be noticed that writers such as Locke and Hooker, who wrote within the Christian tradition, are quoted side by side with the New Testament. This would, of course, be absurd if I were trying to collect independent testimonies to the Tao. But (1) I am not trying to prove its validity by the argument from common consent. Its validity cannot be deduced. For those who do not perceive its rationality, even universal consent could not prove it. (2) The idea of collecting independent testimonies presupposes that ‘civilizations’ have arisen in the world independently of one another; or even that humanity has had several independent emergences on this planet. The biology and anthropology involved in such an assumption are extremely doubtful. It is by no means certain that there has ever (in the sense required) been more than one civilization in all history. It is at least arguable that every civilization we find has been derived from another civilization and, in the last resort, from a single centre — ‘carried’ like an infectious disease or like the Apostolical succession.

I. The Law of General Beneficence



(a) Negative



‘I have not slain men.’ (Ancient Egyptian. From the Confession of the Righteous Soul, ‘Book of the Dead’, v. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics [= ERE], vol. v, p. 478)‘Do not murder.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:13)‘Terrify not men or God will terrify thee.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Precepts of Ptahhetep. H. R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. i3}n)‘In Nastrond (= Hell) I saw… murderers.’ (Old Norse. Volospá 38, 39)‘I have not brought misery upon my fellows. I have not made the beginning of every day laborious in the sight of him who worked for me.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)‘I have not been grasping.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Ibid.)‘Who meditates oppression, his dwelling is overturned.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)‘He who is cruel and calumnious has the character of a cat.’ (Hindu. Laws of Manu. Janet, Histoire de la Science Politique, vol. i, p. 6)‘Slander not.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:16)‘Utter not a word by which anyone could be wounded.’ (Hindu. Janet, p. 7)‘Has he … driven an honest man from his family? broken up a well cemented clan?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins from incantation tablets. ERE v. 446)‘I have not caused hunger. I have not caused weeping.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 478)‘Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects of Confucius, trans. A. Waley, xv. 23; cf. xii. 2)‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:17)‘He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon goodness will dislike no one.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, iv. 4)



(b) Positive



‘Nature urges that a man should wish human society to exist and should wish to enter it.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Officiis, i. iv)‘By the fundamental Law of Nature Man [is] to be preserved as much as possible.’ (Locke, Treatises of Civil Govt. ii. 3)‘When the people have multiplied, what next should be done for them? The Master said, Enrich them. Jan Ch’iu said, When one has enriched them, what next should be done for them? The Master said, Instruct them.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, xiii. 9)‘Speak kindness … show good will.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)‘Men were brought into existence for the sake of men that they might do one another good.’ (Roman. Cicero. De Off. i. vii) ‘Man is man’s delight.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál 47)‘He who is asked for alms should always give.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 7)‘What good man regards any misfortune as no concern of his?’ (Roman. Juvenal xv. 140)‘I am a man: nothing human is alien to me.’ (Roman. Terence, Heaut. Tim.)‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:18)‘Love the stranger as thyself.’ (Ancient Jewish. Ibid. 33, 34)‘Do to men what you wish men to do to you.’ (Christian. Matthew 7:12)



2. The Law of Special Beneficence



‘It is upon the trunk that a gentleman works. When that is firmly set up, the Way grows. And surely proper behaviour to parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, i. 2)‘Brothers shall fight and be each others’ bane.’ (Old Norse. Account of the Evil Age before the World’s end, Volospá 45)‘Has he insulted his elder sister?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)‘You will see them take care of their kindred [and] the children of their friends … never reproaching them in the least.’ (Native American. Le Jeune, quoted ERE v. 437)‘Love thy wife studiously. Gladden her heart all thy life long.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 481)‘Nothing can ever change the claims of kinship for a right thinking man.’ (AngloSaxon. Beowulf, 2600)‘Did not Socrates love his own children, though he did so as a free man and as one not forgetting that the gods have the first claim on our friendship?’ (Greek, Epictetus, iii. 24)‘Natural affection is a thing right and according to Nature.’ (Greek. Ibid. i. xi)‘I ought not to be unfeeling like a statue but should fulfil both my natural and artificial relations, as a worshipper, a son, a brother, a father, and a citizen.’ (Greek. Ibid. 111. ii)‘This first I rede thee: be blameless to thy kindred. Take no vengeance even though they do thee wrong.’ (Old Norse. Sigdrifumál, 22)‘Is it only the sons of Atreus who love their wives? For every good man, who is right-minded, loves and cherishes his own.’ (Greek. Homer, Iliad, ix. 340)‘The union and fellowship of men will be best preserved if each receives from us the more kindness in proportion as he is more closely connected with us.’ (Roman. Cicero. De Off. i. xvi)‘Part of us is claimed by our country, part by our parents, part by our friends.’ (Roman. Ibid. i. vii)‘If a ruler … compassed the salvation of the whole state, surely you would call him Good? The Master said, It would no longer be a matter of “Good”. He would without doubt be a Divine Sage.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, vi. 28)‘Has it escaped you that, in the eyes of gods and good men, your native land deserves from you more honour, worship, and reverence than your mother and father and all your ancestors? That you should give a softer answer to its anger than to a father’s anger? That if you cannot persuade it to alter its mind you must obey it in all quietness, whether it binds you or beats you or sends you to a war where you may get wounds or death?’ (Greek. Plato, Crito, 51, a, b)‘If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith.’ (Christian. I Timothy 5:8)‘Put them in mind to obey magistrates.’… ‘I exhort that prayers be made for kings and all that are in authority.’ (Christian. Titus 3:1 and I Timothy 2:1, 2)



3. Duties to Parents, Elders, Ancestors



‘Your father is an image of the Lord of Creation, your mother an image of the Earth. For him who fails to honour them, every work of piety is in vain. This is the first duty.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 9)‘Has he despised Father and Mother?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)‘I was a staff by my Father’s side … I went in and out at his command.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 481)‘Honour thy Father and thy Mother.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:12)‘To care for parents.’ (Greek. List of duties in Epictetus, in. vii)‘Children, old men, the poor, and the sick, should be considered as the lords of the atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)‘Rise up before the hoary head and honour the old man.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:32)‘I tended the old man, I gave him my staff.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 481)‘You will see them take care … of old men.’ (Native American. Le Jeune, quoted ERE v. 437)‘I have not taken away the oblations of the blessed dead.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)‘When proper respect towards the dead is shown at the end and continued after they are far away, the moral force (tê) of a people has reached its highest point.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, i. 9)



4. Duties to Children and Posterity



‘Children, the old, the poor, etc. should be considered as lords of the atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)‘To marry and to beget children.’ (Greek. List of duties. Epictetus, in. vii)‘Can you conceive an Epicurean commonwealth? . . . What will happen? Whence is the population to be kept up? Who will educate them? Who will be Director of Adolescents? Who will be Director of Physical Training? What will be taught?’ (Greek. Ibid.)‘Nature produces a special love of offspring’ and ‘To live according to Nature is the supreme good.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i. iv, and De Legibus, i. xxi)‘The second of these achievements is no less glorious than the first; for while the first did good on one occasion, the second will continue to benefit the state for ever.’ (Roman. Cicero. De Off. i. xxii)‘Great reverence is owed to a child.’ (Roman. Juvenal, xiv. 47)‘The Master said, Respect the young.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, ix. 22)‘The killing of the women and more especially of the young boys and girls who are to go to make up the future strength of the people, is the saddest part… and we feel it very sorely.’ (Native American. Account of the Battle of Wounded Knee. ERE v. 432)



5. The Law of Justice



(a) Sexual Justice



‘Has he approached his neighbour’s wife?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:14)‘I saw in Nastrond (= Hell)… beguilers of others’ wives.’ (Old Norse. Volospá 38, 39)



(b) Honesty



‘Has he drawn false boundaries?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)‘To wrong, to rob, to cause to be robbed.’ (Babylonian. Ibid.)‘I have not stolen.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)‘Thou shalt not steal.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:15)‘Choose loss rather than shameful gains.’ (Greek. Chilon Fr. 10. Diels)‘Justice is the settled and permanent intention of rendering to each man his rights.’ (Roman. Justinian, Institutions, I. i)‘If the native made a “find” of any kind (e.g., a honey tree) and marked it, it was thereafter safe for him, as far as his own tribesmen were concerned, no matter how long he left it.’ (Australian Aborigines. ERE v. 441)‘The first point of justice is that none should do any mischief to another unless he has first been attacked by the other’s wrongdoing. The second is that a man should treat common property as common property, and private property as his own. There is no such thing as private property by nature, but things have become private either through prior occupation (as when men of old came into empty territory) or by conquest, or law, or agreement, or stipulation, or casting lots.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. I. vii)



(c) Justice in Court, &c.



‘Whoso takes no bribe … well pleasing is this to Samas.’ (Babylonian. ERE v. 445)‘I have not traduced the slave to him who is set over him.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:16)‘Regard him whom thou knowest like him whom thou knowest not.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 482)‘Do no unrighteousness in judgement. You must not consider the fact that one party is poor nor the fact that the other is a great man.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:15)



6. The Law of Good Faith and Veracity



‘A sacrifice is obliterated by a lie and the merit of alms by an act of fraud.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 6)‘Whose mouth, full of lying, avails not before thee: thou burnest their utterance.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)‘With his mouth was he full of Yea, in his heart full of Nay? (Babylonian. ERE v. 446)‘I have not spoken falsehood.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)‘I sought no trickery, nor swore false oaths.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Beowulf, 2738)‘The Master said, Be of unwavering good faith.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, viii. 13)‘In Nastrond (= Hell) I saw the perjurers.’ (Old Norse. Volospá 39)‘Hateful to me as are the gates of Hades is that man who says one thing, and hides another in his heart.’ (Greek. Homer. Iliad, ix. 312)‘The foundation of justice is good faith.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i.vii)‘[The gentleman] must learn to be faithful to his superiors and to keep promises.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, i. 8)‘Anything is better than treachery.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál 124)



7. The Law of Mercy



‘The poor and the sick should be regarded as lords of the atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)‘Whoso makes intercession for the weak, well pleasing is this to Samas.’ (Babylonian. ERE v. 445)‘Has he failed to set a prisoner free?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins. ERE v. 446)‘I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, a ferry boat to the boatless.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 446)‘One should never strike a woman; not even with a flower.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)‘There, Thor, you got disgrace, when you beat women.’ (Old Norse. Hárbarthsljóth 38)‘In the Dalebura tribe a woman, a cripple from birth, was carried about by the tribes-people in turn until her death at the age of sixty-six.’… ‘They never desert the sick.’ (Australian Aborigines. ERE v. 443)‘You will see them take care of… widows, orphans, and old men, never reproaching them.’ (Native American. ERE v. 439)‘Nature confesses that she has given to the human race the tenderest hearts, by giving us the power to weep. This is the best part of us.’ (Roman. Juvenal, xv. 131)‘They said that he had been the mildest and gentlest of the kings of the world.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Praise of the hero in Beowulf, 3180)‘When thou cuttest down thine harvest… and hast forgot a sheaf… thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.’ (Ancient Jewish. Deuteronomy 24:19)



8. The Law of Magnanimity



(A)



‘There are two kinds of injustice: the first is found in those who do an injury, the second in those who fail to protect another from injury when they can.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. I. vii)‘Men always knew that when force and injury was offered they might be defenders of themselves; they knew that howsoever men may seek their own commodity, yet if this were done with injury unto others it was not to be suffered, but by all men and by all good means to be withstood.’ (English. Hooker, Laws of Eccl. Polity, I. ix. 4)‘To take no notice of a violent attack is to strengthen the heart of the enemy. Vigour is valiant, but cowardice is vile.’ (Ancient Egyptian. The Pharaoh Senusert III, cit. H. R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. 161)‘They came to the fields of joy, the fresh turf of the Fortunate Woods and the dwellings of the Blessed . . . here was the company of those who had suffered wounds fighting for their fatherland.’ (Roman. Virgil, Aeneid, vi. 638-9, 660)‘Courage has got to be harder, heart the stouter, spirit the sterner, as our strength weakens. Here lies our lord, cut to pieces, out best man in the dust. If anyone thinks of leaving this battle, he can howl forever.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Maldon, 312)‘Praise and imitate that man to whom, while life is pleasing, death is not grievous.’ (Stoic. Seneca, Ep. liv)‘The Master said, Love learning and if attacked be ready to die for the Good Way.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, viii. 13)



(B)



‘Death is to be chosen before slavery and base deeds.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i, xxiii)‘Death is better for every man than life with shame.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Beowulf, 2890)‘Nature and Reason command that nothing uncomely, nothing effeminate, nothing lascivious be done or thought.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i. iv)‘We must not listen to those who advise us “being men to think human thoughts, and being mortal to think mortal thoughts,” but must put on immortality as much as is possible and strain every nerve to live according to that best part of us, which, being small in bulk, yet much more in its power and honour surpasses all else.’ (Ancient Greek. Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1177 B)‘The soul then ought to conduct the body, and the spirit of our minds the soul. This is therefore the first Law, whereby the highest power of the mind requireth obedience at the hands of all the rest.’ (Hooker, op. cit. i. viii. 6)‘Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to live, let him wait for his time … let him patiently bear hard words, entirely abstaining from bodily pleasures.’ (Ancient Indian. Laws of Manu. ERE ii. 98)‘He who is unmoved, who has restrained his senses … is said to be devoted. As a flame in a windless place that flickers not, so is the devoted.’ (Ancient Indian. Bhagavad gita. ERE ii 90)



(C)



‘Is not the love of Wisdom a practice of death?’ (Ancient Greek. Plato, Phadeo, 81 A)‘I know that I hung on the gallows for nine nights, wounded with the spear as a sacrifice to Odin, myself offered to Myself.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál, I. 10 in Corpus Poeticum Boreale; stanza 139 in Hildebrand’s Lieder der Älteren Edda. 1922)‘Verily, verily I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it.’ (Christian. John 12:24,25)

Read more posts like "What do we mean by moral law?" at The Showbear Family Circus.

5 Big Questions: Technology and Virtue

Lancelot Schaubert over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

We’re starting 5 Big Questions because we had a really vibrant comment section years ago that has since switched to more personal interactions with you all via email. Though we cherish those interactions, we also wanted to encourage you all to dialog with one another as well in the comments.

So we’re going to try 5 big questions today on technology and virtue. In top-level comments, pick your favorite technology and then answer the questions — hash these out with one another:

What does this technology enhance or intensify or make possible or accelerate?Does this new technology bring back or rescue anything we’ve lost?When pushed to the limits of its potential, how could this tech degrade its users?What is made obsolete or pushed aside by the new technology?What virtues guide you in either the use and adoption or abandonment and dismissal of this technology?

For instance you could start off your comment like:

SOCIAL MEDIA

It enhances and intensifies…It brings back…It degrades us by…It renders ____ obsolete through…I’m guided in my decision to ____ by the virtues….

or… CLONING

It enhances and intensifies…It brings back…It degrades us by…It renders ____ obsolete through…I’m guided in my decision to ____ by the virtues….

Pick a tech and we’ll see you in the comments below \/ \/

Read more posts like "5 Big Questions: Technology and Virtue" at The Showbear Family Circus.

“Throw a Flower”

Kristina Heflin over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

When someone throws you a stone, throw back a flower—Gandhi

If you and your soulmate

are made of the same stuff

same star-studded atoms

electrons, neurons

then is it not the same

for you and your enemy?

Are not your atoms

molecules and cells acted

on by the same laws

of the same universe?

Are they not the bleeding

laughing Shylocks

of this nothing new-

under-the-sun world?

Then love them

for they are you.

Read more posts like "“Throw a Flower”" at The Showbear Family Circus.

WHOLESOMELY HOLISTIC

Gerard Sarnat over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

i. Transformative Seeing

Training in ethics,
wisdom then meditation
— follow Buddha’s path.

ii. Hansel And Gretel

Path to our delight’s
hopefully something inside
— no need to import.

iii. My Privates

Peaceful heart and mind
are revolutions you use
to stop suffering.

iv. Winter

All’s fine now when sun
out but notice how nice mood
changes when cloudy.

v.  Right Action

Consequential deeds
can create lovingkindness,
equanimity.

vi. Boys ‘N Girls

Seniors of each age
are most welcome to engage
what makes us joyeous.

vii. Every Day Is Earth Day

Endeavor to leave
this world better off not worse
than when we were born.

viii. Noble Truth

The Awakened One
keeps me really busy
with Eightfold Path lists.

ix. Abrahamic Brothers

Post dharma talk – eyes
open as Jew greets Ayub,
Lebanese Muslim.

Read more posts like "WHOLESOMELY HOLISTIC" at The Showbear Family Circus.

“The Journey”

Kristina Heflin over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

They will resist you, beautiful darling.

When you near your prize

monsters will rise from their lairs

challenge you and prove your mettle.

Show you are worthy

to enter the Cave of Wonders.

Your heart’s desire is at your fingertips

if you survive the barbs and stings

of traps waiting within.

Poisoned arrow tips, strangling nets

sinking sands, total darkness

will try to seal you in

an untimely tomb.

But your blood courses with an

echo of a thousand loving ancestors.

Pick yourself up, strong one.

Climb through the shattered remains

of snares meant for your too-fast feet.

Your goal is within sight

gleaming through tarnished shadows.

Wipe the sweat from your brow.

Stretch out your hand to your destiny

and let no one snatch it from you.

Read more posts like "“The Journey”" at The Showbear Family Circus.

Child Rearing

Gerard Sarnat over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

Pushover as dad,

kids did everything I asked. 

But my youngest’s strict

with hers who will not

do one single solid thing:

a coincidence?

Read more posts like "Child Rearing" at The Showbear Family Circus.

Dwarf Tossing

Laura Austin over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

Florida is a beautiful state with all the sand and sunshine you could ask for, and sometimes more than you want. It’s a great place to live and visit. If you have an odd sense of fun, however, you may want to ready the legal fees.

In the hit movie “Wolf of Wall Street”, Leo throws a little person at a Velcro target for sport. In the Sunshine state, it is illegal to for owners of commercial establishments that sell alcohol to allow dwarf-tossing contests (they can suffer fines of up to $100). This begs a few questions.

One set of questions would be is it legal to have a dwarf-throwing contest where no alcohol is sold? What are the criteria for it being considered a contest? If there are no prizes, can it be done legally?

Another set of questions may be, if the person is just really short, can you have the contest in this type of establishment? What defines a dwarf? Is it even politically correct to call the person a dwarf even under the guise of protection from exploitation during drunken mayhem? If the person is mistaken for a dwarf, but is just really short, can the charges be dropped upon proof? What about protection for dainty, petite bar patrons?

Also, you may ask, why is this a law? What happened to inspire such legislation? This may be an important factor in determining the answer to my last, but most important line of questioning.

Why on earth do we need a law telling people not to grab a little person and toss him or her at a target? On the other hand, it’s a free country and consent is everything. If a little person wishes to be tossed, who are we to forbid it? Does the little person have to be sober upon making the decision or can their be a level of intoxication that renders him unable to give consent?

Perhaps a hearing is in order, to determine the legality of such a moral dilemma. Or perhaps a vote, but this would spark a new controversy. Every citizen should have the right to vote, but how can we tell people with a height advantage that they have a say in whether or not we toss dwarves around in bars? Who would have the gumption to stand and say, “Yes, dwarves should be thrown for prizes. Let the games begin!”

In conclusion, morality is sometimes less a question and more a paradox. There are often no right answers, and we can only look inside ourselves for guidance. What would Jesus do? Jesus knew a very short man named Zaccheus. Zaccheus was so short, he couldn’t see Jesus in the crowd and climbed a tree. When Jesus saw him, He told him to come down and He was going to his house. People were shocked. Not because Zaccheus was short, but because he was a hated tax collector. Even back in those politically incorrect times, no one suggested they toss the little guy around for fun. They just went to his house and had a meal together.

Read more posts like "Dwarf Tossing" at The Showbear Family Circus.

Math is Beautiful

Siamak Vossoughi over at The Showbear Family Circus - Lancelot Schaubert's and Tara Schaubert's liberal arts circus. said ::

Having grown tired of his students asking why they needed to know math, Mike Glank came up with a plan. For eight months he had responded to their question with “You should know math because it is beautiful.” This would stun them long enough that he could go on to the next thing. But they had begun to demur. They had discovered the fatal flaw in his argument, which was that beauty was subjective, and so it could be argued, by a boy or girl struggling to find the percent of change, that math was in fact not beautiful.

If his plan worked, Mike thought, it could have lasting ramifications. He dreamed of it becoming a story that was passed down to next year’s sixth-graders. He imagined it becoming the stuff of legend: The day we learned once and for all why we should know math.

The truth was he did not mind making the “Math is beautiful” argument every year, despite its holes. The holes were interesting too, because they assumed that if math was beautiful, that would be enough. Maybe along the way they would learn to pay attention to what they found beautiful.

Still, it was May, and what he had learned about May was that a concession could be made.

He told the class that next week they would go down to the park to measure the height of trees using shadows and proportion. They could bring money and afterwards they could buy something from the ice cream truck that was there in the afternoon.

It was a nice day when they went and as they passed the ice cream truck, Mike exchanged a wink with Rico, the driver.

It was a funny life, Mike thought, as he watched the kids partner up and form similar triangles using the trees, themselves, and their respective shadows. He did feel as he watched them that he was right about math being beautiful. Was it math or was it the discovery of math in a child of eleven or twelve? He became very excited about their discoveries. But it wasn’t so much the math itself as much as the appreciation of themselves for understanding the math. He hoped they would learn to always appreciate themselves like that. That was the start of everything.

It always came back to human beings. You could take the most brilliant mathematician in the world and they might be at a loss in a sixth-grade classroom. There was something reassuring about that.

He began to feel a little bad about his plan. What if his message that math is beautiful was sinking in? It certainly was beautiful to figure out the height of the trees at the park. He wondered if he was undercutting himself by presenting them with the beauty and the practicality at the same time.

His first year of teaching, there was a girl in his class named Amalie Smith. She’d overheard him say to another student, “You need to know how to do this for seventh grade,” and she’d said, “Excuse me, Mr. Glank, I don’t mean to be rude, but when you’re in sixth grade, teachers always say, you need to know this for seventh grade. And when we’re in seventh grade, they’re probably going to say, you need to know this for eighth grade. And when we’re in eighth grade, they’re probably going to say, you need to know this for high school. And so on and so on. Isn’t there a better reason to know all this?”

Since then, he’d tried very hard to make the value of learning math rest in the present. It was the most important time to sixth-graders anyway.

Still, he reminded himself, it was May, and a concession could be made.

After they’d all measured three trees and compared the results, Mike let them line up for ice cream.

“Take your clipboards,” Mike said.

When they got to the truck, Rico made the announcement: “Ice cream is 15% off, but my calculator isn’t working. I need you to figure out what the new prices should be.”

There was a moment of confusion and wonder as the world of percents and the world of ice cream collided. The kids all looked at Mike, who was looking intently at a patch of daisies. Having seen a lot of bad lying as a teacher, he knew something about lying well. The key was to casually and unmelodramatically show that you were the one who wanted to get to the bottom of the thing as well.

“What’s wrong?” he said.

“We have to figure out what 15% off is!”

He turned his smile of victory into a smile of surprise. “That’s wonderful!”

The kids realized that they could get to the ice cream quicker than they could get to the truth of the matter. They went to work. Mike walked over to them, keeping up his look of wonderful surprise.

The thing the kids didn’t know was that teaching required him to take on a role every day. It was the role of a man who knew the world. It felt good to play the part of a man who didn’t know what was going on.

The park’s playground was a popular spot for nannies to bring little kids in the afternoon. Two young women walked over to the truck holding babies.

“It’s 15% off!” Tomasina Chew said.

“But you have to figure it out yourself!” Emma Clay said.

Both girls were usually shy, but they had to do something with the colliding of worlds. They couldn’t just hold it.

The young women looked at Rico.

“My calculator is broken?” he said.

Mike looked at Rico and in his face he saw a panic that could only mean that his hours in the ice cream truck were more or less defined by a longing for the shorter, brown-haired young woman. His one chance with her depended on ice cream, and now the possibility of forcing her to figure out what 15% off was might make him look like the ugliest and meanest young man in the world.

“Can I see your calculator?” Mike said.

He held it close to him and examined it, then pressed some buttons.

“He’s our math teacher,” Tomasina said to the young women.

9 x 6. Yep, it was still 54.

33 – 11. 22. Just as he thought.

These were the facts of his life. They were true when he was a boy and they were true now that he was a man.

“I think it’s working,” he said.

“Thanks,” Rico said.

“But I think these young mathematicians should finish their calculations, in case something should happen to it again.”

Mike braced himself for a groan that never came. They could tell that something important had just happened, even if they were not sure what.

Walking back from the park, Mike forgot all about the lasting ramifications and the stuff of legend. You probably couldn’t plan out any legends anyway. They just had to happen.

It was comical to think about all the times students had asked him why they needed to know math. There was probably no other line of work where a person was asked that question so frequently. ‘Why do you do this?’, in other words.

Of course, the students didn’t see it that way. They saw it as though he could be doing any number of things. He could be driving an ice cream truck, and then kids would always be happy to see him. They were on opposite sides of it, he and Rico. At least in May it felt that way. He smiled because he thought he must feel glad about himself to joke like that.

As most of the kids ran up the hill that led to the school, some of the girls stayed behind.

“Why did you have us finish the calculations even though the calculator was working, Mr. Glank?” Tomasina said.

“I think you know why.”

“Because math is beautiful?”

“That’s right.”

It was harder to argue against the notion of math being beautiful now, what with it being May.

He hoped that math would still be beautiful later this afternoon when he would go back down to the park to pay Rico back what he owed him. He hoped it would be enough to have turned the panic in his face into something else.

As the other girls recounted excitedly everything that had happened down at the park, Hannah Vargas walked up very close to Mike.

“That was a good trick, Mr. Glank,” she said. “Next time you shouldn’t tell us to take our clipboards when we go to the ice cream truck. That gave it away.”

She smiled and shrugged, and took off running to join the other kids waiting and panting and looking out at the world at the top of the hill.

Read more posts like "Math is Beautiful" at The Showbear Family Circus.