Pamphlet No. 3: “Will Heaven Be Boring?”

“Teacher: You might watch a movie to alleviate boredom, but what if the movie went on for ten hours?

Student: Anyone would tire of a movie that long.

Teacher: Yes, and so you would quit watching the movie to do something else, but that thing would eventually becomes boring, as well. So you do something else that you eventually tired of, then something else you tired of after that. Have you ever tasted something so good that you never wanted to eat it again?

Student: No. If something tastes really good, you want it all the more.

Teacher: Yes. We want to eat our favorite foods again and again. They’re good, but they don’t satisfy us for all that long. Have you ever seen a movie that was so good you never wanted to watch it again?

Student: Again, no. I generally watch good movies over and over again.

Teacher: But you don’t immediately rewatch them? You don’t rewatch a good film the second it’s over?

Student: Of course not. I might watch my favorite films once a year.

Teacher: Why don’t you rewatch them immediately?

Student: Because I don’t want to. I’ve had enough. 

Teacher: Yes. If you rewatched a good movie the second it was over, you wouldn’t enjoy it.

Student: It would be boring. Teacher: Yes. That’s how tenuous the things of this world are. We enjoy our favorite movies as long as we don’t have to watch them twice in a row. We enjoy our favorite meals as long as we don’t have to eat them three times in the same day, in which case we’d grow sick of them. And yet neither does the satisfaction which our favorite movies and favorite meals offer us last all that long. We tire of not having them, then we tire of having them. There’s nothing on earth—not even our favorite things—which isn’t beset on all sides by boredom. And consider just how many things you enjoyed last year or the year before which no longer interest you at all.”

-from “Will Heaven Be Boring? A Companion Piece To Love What Lasts“

My next pamphlet should be done by Christmas and will be available through Gibbs Classical. It’s a long conversation between a teacher and a student that revolves around the fear that heaven will be boring. Love What Lasts explores the connections between good taste and piety. “Will Heaven Be Boring?” explores those connections in a way that will prove compelling to high school students and adults alike.

Travis Copeland Has Guts

“Lastly, if classical schools more cautiously approached graduate degrees, a lot of us teachers might be out of some pay, but we might be made all the wiser and more honest for it. So, what if in the next interview, your administration stopped asking: what school did you go to, and instead they asked: what does this proverb mean? “

-from Travis Copeland’s I Almost Regret My Master’s Degree

Classical Christian education has become a movement so intent on congratulating itself and singing its own praises, nearly anyone who calls for reform is labeled an ingrate and a perfectionist. I appreciate Travis Copeland’s willingness to call a spade a spade. His latest article for CiRCE is well worth reading.

When The Best Part Of School Was Lunch

“The student who says lunch was the best part of the day isn’t necessarily griping. How many happy fathers would say the best part of their week was the time they spent in the office? None, and this doesn’t mean they’re ungrateful for their jobs, or that they find their work unsatisfying. Likewise, going to class is work and students shouldn’t be held to standards that even sane, pious Christian adults would disdain.”

-from my latest for CiRCE

It’s All Downstream From Tip-Shaming

Kroger: Would you like to scan and bag your own groceries?

Customer: Bag my own groceries? Are you going to pay me to do your work?

Kroger: No. As a matter of fact, we’re going to start charging you for the bags that you’re filling yourself.

Customer: Is the bag fee going toward higher quality bags?

Kroger: No. The new bags break ten times quicker than the old ones.

Customer: Win win win. Sounds good to me.

Always Right or Always Good?

It’s far easier to deal with people who always think they’re right than with people who always think their intentions are pure.

People who always think they’re right have a high incentive to actually be right, because they know everyone can tell when they’ve been proven wrong. On the other hand, you cannot prove to someone that their intentions were impure.