Category: Experience
We’re excited that you’ve joined the conversation! At HMU, we want to continue the great authors’ conversations in a contemporary context, and this blog will help us do that. We look back to Aristotle and the early philosophers who used reason and discourse to gain wisdom and now we endeavor to do the same every day.
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Friday, May 6, 2022 Thanks to David Kirichenko, a 2022 Fellow in Ideas recipient, for today’s post. Understanding your place in the universe is difficult. It requires facing, and then transcending, your deepest concerns, with death as one of our core fears. One day you will die. Everyone you know and love will die. All …
March 11, 2022 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. Last week marked the end of HMU’s Winter Film Series. I cannot express how much I love this series. If you were unable to join us, never fear, we will host another film series next winter. In the meantime, the following thoughts resulted …
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Film Discussion Read More »
February 4, 2022 Thanks to Jaya Upadhyay, a 2021 Fellow in Ideas recipient, for today’s post. What does a poet mean when he says, “I am not contained between my hat and boots,” but then adds, “If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles?” What does it mean to exist beyond the …
December 3, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. Listen to “Misty Mountain Hop” by Led Zeppelin while reading today’s blog. In The Meaning of Travel by Emily Thomas, she explains that mountains used to be feared, vile, despicable places. In literature, they were described with disdain and hatred. She quotes John …
August 27, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. I picked up Intimations by Zadie Smith with no intention to write about it. I simply wanted to read another person’s experience of COVID and isolation. Though I have worked fairly hard to steel my mind against the static, restrictive nature of the …
April 2, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. As a reader, and a human, I am always drawn towards love’s many dimensions. Unlike Janus who faces in two directions only (forward and backward), love is indescribably complex. For that reason, it absolutely fascinates me. Although Louise Glück’s book Ararat from 1990 …
March 5, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. The Great Books Foundation recently hosted a virtual Great Books Chicago (in place of the usual in-person Great Books Chicago). Beauty was the topic of discussion. I gained wonderful perspectives from the weekend and so, today’s blog attempts to address a number of …
February 26, 2021 Thanks to Kyle Ryan Williams, an HMU 2021 Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post. In this pandemic era, COVID-19 has turned everything on its head. We are forced to isolate ourselves away from others in hopes of minimizing the rate by which the virus is transmitted. The prevention and sickness and death …
January 29, 2021 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. “It is not easy to realize the serene joy of all the earth, when she commences to shine unobstructedly, unless you have often been abroad alone in moonlight nights.” – Henry David Thoreau Discussions this month focused on Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Night …
August 14, 2020 Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post. The trouble with history is that someone is always writing it. By that I mean, that a single person gives their perspective of an event or series of events, which is an important idea to hold in mind when discussing historical documents. We …
