Category: Identity
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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June 13, 2025
Thanks to Estella Achinko, a 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s blog.
The question of what it means to “be” has fascinated philosophers for centuries. The essence of man—our nature, existence, and purpose—is layered with complexities. We are not merely physical beings navigating the world, but entities entwined with our surroundings, shaped by interactions, thoughts, and deeper realities. To truly understand ourselves, we must acknowledge both the tangible and the abstract—the seen and the unseen.
» Read more about: Man and the Pluralistic Essence of Being »
May 16, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
If you know me at all, then you know I love poetry. I read a lot of it. You might say I consume metaphors, images, and ideas. I also carve space into each week to write poems, enjoying the struggle and care of language. I find restrictions and limitations frustrating, but usually worthwhile. So, it will come as no surprise that I immensely enjoy the entire month of April (National Poetry Month) and attend as many events as possible.
May 9, 2025
Thanks to 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, Estella Achinko, for today’s post.
Life’s journey is an intricate tapestry woven with moments of triumph and despair, shaping our existence and compelling us to pause in introspection. At various junctures, we ponder the essence of our being, asking ourselves: Who are we? What is our purpose? Who are we destined to become? In the relentless tide of circumstances, many beyond our control,
April 25, 2025
Thanks to Sabahat Ali Wani, a 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s post.
“Always seeing something, never seeing nothing, being photographer.” ― Walter De Mulder, Belgian Photographer
A camera’s eye has enveloped and seeped into our being—not only from outside but also from within. We see like a camera’s eye. We understand, confirm, document and store our reality as images.
» Read more about: Camera’s Eye, My Eye: Re-reading Susan Sontag’s On Photography (1977) »
March 21, 2025
Thanks to Joy Reeves, a 2025 HMU Fellow in Ideas, for today’s blog.
“Fortune befriends the bold,” Virgil first wrote in Aeneid. But in a world where boldness, the self-serving counterpart of courage, is so quick to estrange and sour relationships—is fortune’s friendship enough? Todd Field’s 2022 film Tár masterfully addresses this question in a unique, provocative portrait of a lonely musical genius.
February 28, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
I presented in the War and Culture group for this year’s Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference. War and Culture is well outside my norm, but a comment during one of last year’s roundtable discussions stuck with me. Last year, the War and Culture group was abnormally small, which seemed odd given the number of ongoing worldwide conflicts.
May 17, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s blog.
Metaphor was born from curiosity. From metaphor comes astonishing revelations. Such was the experience of this year’s April Quarterly Discussion. We discussed two short stories written by completely different authors, one by the contemporary science fiction and fantasy author Ted Chiang, and one by the Canadian Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Montgomery’s story “The Man on the Train,” first published in 1914,
July 8, 2022
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
Happiness is of such importance that the Declaration of Independence uses it as a foundational principle. Considering its importance in my own society, one would think that I thoroughly understand the term. However, it is as slippery today as it has always been. Sometimes I believe that my own personal happiness is necessary because it will assist me to support those around me.
February 11, 2022
Thanks to Gabriel E. Etienne, a 2021 Fellow in Ideas recipient, for today’s post.
The movie Moonlight is a coming-of-age story that details the complexity of the journey of boyhood to manhood of the character Little/Black/Chiron through the issues of authentic Blackness and hegemonic masculinity (Johnson 2003). This review uses the concepts of Quiet and Silence to view and understand the movie Moonlight.
» Read more about: Film Review: Quiet and Silence in Moonlight »
November 5, 2021
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
“If you tear a plant out of the ground, more than its roots come up.” – William James
Today’s blog takes a peek at William James. Most of the following quotes come from The Pluralistic Universe, but a few are from other works of his. This list of quotes is meant only to function as an entry point into James’s ideas.