Having practiced the moral characteristics of temperance, silence, order, and resolution at the beginning of the year (and thus, the beginning of the project), it was time for a second attempt at mastery of the said virtues. The easiest way was simply to find the best people that embodied each character trait, and simply imitate how they set their vision of the world in which they live.
The heroes imitated this week? Adam, Triet, Teresa, & Alex, four of the most wonderful friends in the world.
Practicing temperance was rather difficult considering it was my birthday weekend, and I had quite a lot of alcohol to consume. At the same time, I ensured my vision of having an appropriately equal amount of work and sleep, as well as socializing and alone time, as seen in the information below. [The hours were added from the information above].
Adam is the embodiment of temperance because he not refrains from eating and drinking to elevation, he knows how to maintain an adequately balanced life and schedule. Somehow in law school and still able to socialize with his friends and family in S.D. and back home makes him stand out from the crowd as an individual and a hero in my book.
The embodiment of silence, Triet is a man of few words. And yet when he chooses to speak, everything he says is meaningful and useful. In my desperate attempt to silence myself this week I entertained myself in my alone time speaking to nobody, and instead indulging myself in the world of books, movies, and social media. I refrained from excessive gossip, maintained a silent demeanor during a game of MAFIA, and attempted to set an example for the students I teach by being silent in front of the class. (Telling the class to quiet down is a hard task, and yet a meaningful one if done successfully).
Teresa lives a rather orderly life having to maintain a tight schedule of sleep, work, community service, lab, and especially school. As a Bio Major it’s not easy to be able to maintain friendships and yet, she is able to get good grades in the process of sacrificing sleeping. In maintaining order in my life, I attempted to clean out all the bad thoughts that consume me (pessimism), consume the clutter in my life (both physically and mentally), and planning out an appropriate birthday dinner. The results? A successful trip to Phil’s BBQ based on the organization of my Google Docs below!
As seen above, it takes a rather orderly person to be able to plan and color code something in such great detail. I hope to use my organization skills in the classroom to ensure my students get the most adequate lesson plans adapted to their needs possible. (As well as ensure all assignments are graded in an appropriate time frame).
Finally, Alex represents an individual with a strong conviction for everything she does. With her passion and determination, she resolves all the issues in her lives, and does not let problems linger in the background. As a Grad school student, I’m relatively sure she will finish to completion despite all the challenges that might come up along the way. In dealing with conflict resolution in the classroom I try to imitate her in being both listening, caring, and giving appropriate advice calmly to my recipients. Dealing with the “resolution” of saying goodbye to peers, I try to ensure that there maintains contact in the future. Maintaining proper friendships by planning future hangouts upon seeing friends is one way I ensure we maintain close contact.
So, as you can see, my friends are amazing in all those arenas. And yet I must always cite the inspiration for these four major characteristics: none other than the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
As the Bible for this project essentially, Benjamin Franklin keeps a log of all the moral characteristics he performs every single day, as seen below: (T, S, O, and R are temperance, silence, order, and resolution).
Though I don’t do all 13 moral characteristics at the same time, I can only hope he’s happy in his grave that I’m holding him up to such a high standard (despite the fact that he electrocuted himself while flying a kite).
Next Week: Henry, Earle, Michelle, & Nandhu
