Memories and Changes
I was just reading ellie's post on Tom Davis, about how he changed her life, and how he is the reason she is a pacifist. I started thinking about how he affected me.
He is the reason I'm not an arrogant bastard. I love philosophy, and I love being right. I can't help it. It's a good feeling. However, when I first met him, I was pretty arrogant. I was a confirmed Catholic that was bitterly skeptical of religion, and of people that spoke about God. I was an arrogant Democrat that believed Republican was synonymous with enemy. I was many things, but mostly, I was arrogant. I didn't listen to the other side.
I have a few times talked about the sharp regret I have for telling Dennis Shuager, Tom's colleague, "You're wrong." I remember the "oohs" that rose up throughout the room as the words leapt from my lips. 2 words. 2 syllables. "You're Wrong." I instantly regretted those words. As I looked back at that moment, I often attributed it as a transforming moment for my approach to life. Now, I know that this was not the moment, but a reference point for later reflection. It was in the following semesters with Tom that that I really began to change.
It wasn't any one thing Tom said. It was the constant calmness with which he said it. Even when he was upset, he seemed to have a gentleness about him that made it impossible to build your own anger. I still remember him describing to us the idea of God as a house. He said that all of these religions would stand on a different side of the house and explain what they saw. Everyone's description was different, but all were describing parts of the same thing. It was about realizing that there could be a bit of commonality with even your enemy or opponent that would advance your own search for Truth. Failing to consider the words of the opposition could limit your own perspective. The extent to which Tom practiced this very lesson in day to day life is what made this moral so clear.
I also remember his saying "Don't let the ocean into the bathtub." I know he didn't create it, but I use it all the time. To me that will always be his.
There are so many lost memories of Tom Davis, but the effects remain clear. Tom created changed in ways that remain with us to this day. It is in the proof that some of us are so upset, that we cannot bear to attend his funeral. It is in the fact that a single day cannot contain our sorrow. Most of all, it is in the fact that his Truths are still passed along long after we have parted ways.
I have never much believed in Heaven, but I hope to meet him there.
He is the reason I'm not an arrogant bastard. I love philosophy, and I love being right. I can't help it. It's a good feeling. However, when I first met him, I was pretty arrogant. I was a confirmed Catholic that was bitterly skeptical of religion, and of people that spoke about God. I was an arrogant Democrat that believed Republican was synonymous with enemy. I was many things, but mostly, I was arrogant. I didn't listen to the other side.
I have a few times talked about the sharp regret I have for telling Dennis Shuager, Tom's colleague, "You're wrong." I remember the "oohs" that rose up throughout the room as the words leapt from my lips. 2 words. 2 syllables. "You're Wrong." I instantly regretted those words. As I looked back at that moment, I often attributed it as a transforming moment for my approach to life. Now, I know that this was not the moment, but a reference point for later reflection. It was in the following semesters with Tom that that I really began to change.
It wasn't any one thing Tom said. It was the constant calmness with which he said it. Even when he was upset, he seemed to have a gentleness about him that made it impossible to build your own anger. I still remember him describing to us the idea of God as a house. He said that all of these religions would stand on a different side of the house and explain what they saw. Everyone's description was different, but all were describing parts of the same thing. It was about realizing that there could be a bit of commonality with even your enemy or opponent that would advance your own search for Truth. Failing to consider the words of the opposition could limit your own perspective. The extent to which Tom practiced this very lesson in day to day life is what made this moral so clear.
I also remember his saying "Don't let the ocean into the bathtub." I know he didn't create it, but I use it all the time. To me that will always be his.
There are so many lost memories of Tom Davis, but the effects remain clear. Tom created changed in ways that remain with us to this day. It is in the proof that some of us are so upset, that we cannot bear to attend his funeral. It is in the fact that a single day cannot contain our sorrow. Most of all, it is in the fact that his Truths are still passed along long after we have parted ways.
I have never much believed in Heaven, but I hope to meet him there.