Missing the conversation...

One of the great yet understated virtues of academia and the pursuit of higher education is the concept of intellectual curiosity. Six, going on seven years removed from the undergraduate experience, I find myself longing for the in-depth conversations among introspective individuals seeking to decipher the meaning of life, their place in it and their responsibility in shaping it. As I approach 30, I find myself wondering what happened to that conversation, and how do I find it and reactivate it in my life and the lives of those around me. Consciousness is what separates the strong from the weak, the owners and creators from the dependents and consumers. Whether we accept it or not, we are responsible for the things we know, and the things we do not. Abdicating our responsibility to continue to seek knowledge, to seek answers to the difficult questions in life, has become the downfall of American civilization. Comfort and complacency reduces the consciousness of man.

 We must rekindle the conversation that began all those years ago, and remind our offspring of the real purpose behind the pursuit of higher learning. It is not about creating new factories-institutions that mass produces sub-par graduates (Hi Kaplan and for-profit money making schemes). Fostering a sense of intellectual curiosity is the foundation of the undergraduate university experience, and from my vantage point many of these "online university's" fall quite short of grooming their students to understand this concept. If we agree to the supposition that we are currently living in "the Information Age" then it is incumbent upon us to respect the importance of information, access to it, and the ways in which we use it to advance our communities and ourselves. The "haves" have for a reason, and the "have not's" simply have yet to figure out that reason. Convincing the "have not's" to desire to have a curiosity toward deciphering this equation is one of the great causes of my life and in 2013 I plan to make conscious steps toward rekindling this conversation.

"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny" - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 Be well, and I bid everyone a productive New Year,
 Jamar L. Kelly