Hijacked!

Ways in which my classmates hijacked my ethics class:

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Professor: So what did Shell do that was unethical?
Classmate 1 (immediately): NOTHING.

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Professor: So...wait what was that quote again.... the tragedy of the commons...something about good men....
Classmate 2: It's a tangent let's move on.
Professor: OK.

~~~~~

I can't think of anything to write so I'll let Rumi and Ghandi do it for me:

Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make sense. Today like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
- Rumi

Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.

—Gandhi

(p.s. the quote the prof was trying to remember is from Thomas Paine: "The only thing required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing")

One of those little inspiring moments

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. ~Herman Melville

As I was driving to my friend's house in St. Paul yesterday, I drove passed an old, beat up looking truck stalled in the middle of the intersection at Snelling and University, which is probably one of the busiest intersections in that area of town.

It took me a while to even make it up to the intersection, since everyone was trying to merge left to get around the stalled car, but once I was able to see what was going on I saw the truck, sitting sad and defunct on the north-ish side of University, being valiantly pushed out of the way by maybe the most random conglomoration of people I have ever seen - a petite middle-aged soccer mom, a black guy in his early twenties rocking the saggy pants/boxers look, two random hipster guys, along with probably three other people all pushing that truck with everything they had. It probably didn't help that what appeared to be either the muffler or part of the mechanics was dragging partially on the ground and it was definitely slow going, but you could see them strategizing and working together. These people probably had never even seen each other before that moment, but it gives me renewed faith in humanity that amidst all the increasing cynicism about human nature, random people on the street will still rally to help someone in need.

These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing, If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing, If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is, This is the common air that bathes the globe. ~ Walt Whitman