Final Morrie Socratic Seminar Blog

      The past 4 seminars definitely influenced my thinking, bringing up viewpoints I would never even have thought of. It also brought up a lot of side tangents, such as ghosts, ways we'd want to die, other books, communism, consumerism, and quotable quotes. For example, Lorin: "If I couldn't die of old age, I'd go on death row." On a more serious note, my own mortality, something I had long shoved in a box inside of a mobile home that I sent tumbling down a cliff, crawled back up and brought itself into focus. I did realize that I had wasted a part my life, but at the same time, another part of me was grabbing my mortality realization and trying to kill it with fire. It was...odd, to say the least. It also made me realize; Morrie did something long thought impossible: merging with, accepting, and using his own mortality as a philosophical springboard. I do believe I made a remark to that effect as well.

      One major trend I noticed with myself was that the seminar went so far away from what I had written in my guide that I eventually stopped entertaining the notion of using it, and as such only filled out the required minimum. This wasn't really negative, as few used their guides overall. Also, my reflections were rather formulaic: "Overall, this was [good/average/great]. [Flaws]. [Successes]. [Number grade]. As for me, [Flaws]. [Successes]." Again, this isn't entirely a bad thing; formulas can be useful for stuff that you do a lot (like these), are much the same every time (like these), and cover similar ground every time (again, like these). Additionally, I'd bring up a flaw and it'd be fixed the next seminar. Rinse and repeat, until you get here.

      The class had some trends too: flaws that got fixed the next seminar and random, relevant offshoots being the most common ones. Others were quotable quotes and laughter fits after them. Despite this, the seminars really helped my understanding of the material. This class, also, is rather conducive to such things. A less advanced class would probably have some...troubles...with such things. However, unpreparedness is statistically unavoidable, but you should at least try to mitigate it. That way, it won't hit you as hard.