I was lucky...

I was lucky, I guess. I learned not only habits of mind, but substance of value. Both have informed my life.

The habit of analysing a text to discover the interplay of surface and depth, to uncover its connections to the culture in which it's embedded, to think thoughts I couldn't otherwise think, all these have enriched my life. Most of all, they've helped me get some inkling of what it's like to be someone else.

As for substance: The works I read for my degree have common themes. They are all riffs on the central insight of our religions and philosophies: that connection with other human beings is the only thing that makes life worth living.

My faith tradition supplies one version of this insight: "Love God, and love your neighbour." To love God means to love his creation. To love your neighbour means to see each other as precious beings. To do both means to be overwhelmed by awe at the gift of being alive.

It was the study of secular texts that brought me to see the sacred texts as primary. They are historically the first ones to teach those habits of mind and those matters of substance. That's why they endure. And that's why study of the humanities remains essential. Without the discipline of deep reading, a text will feed the darkest impulses of the human heart.