Thanksgiving in Hamilton Hall

Every year, about a week before Thanksgiving break, Ohio Dominican University hosts a Thanksgiving dinner for students, faculty, and staff in Hamilton Hall.  The staff dims the lights and puts table cloths and centerpieces on all of the tables.  They serve turkey and pumpkin pie and other holiday-themed foods.  This year, I was very impressed by the salad that was served.  It was so good I ended up eating four servings of it!  This salad was made with spinach leaves, strawberries, mandarin oranges, candied pecans, and a poppy-seed dressing.  Honestly, it was quite possibly the most delicious meal I've ever eaten in my life.  I plan to attempt to re-create it for my own family's Thanksgiving this week.  I let one of the workers know how much I enjoyed the salad and he was very pleased.  The Sodexo staff has been trying to get student feedback to help them improve our dining experiences and I have to say that they have been doing a very good job.  I am very impressed and I have heard many other students saying they have been pleased with the improvements they have seen especially in the meals offered in Hamilton.  Hopefully, we will be seeing even more positive changes in the dining hall.  Maybe I'll get lucky and get to consume another delicious salad in Hamilton Hall before I graduate in December!  :-)

Love and Forgivness

"Spread love where you can.  And where you can't spread love, practice the art of forgiveness"

This is how one of my philosophy professors, Kevin Michael, ends every class session.  I am in my second class with him now and I think I am enjoying this one more so than my first class with him.  My Junior year here at ODU I took Philosophy of Good and Evil with him which was also a good class,but this year, I'm in Applied Ethics and it's just a lot better for me in helping me form my own ideas of morality.  I think it has been forcing me to really think more logically about certain issues that I have kind of made an opinion of without necessarily having all the necessary information and viewpoints.  I see a lot of things very differently now that I've opened myself up more to the possibility that I can be wrong.  I'm not saying that all of my opinions have necessarily changed, but I have grown in a better understanding of viewpoints that are both with and against my own ideas and opinions.  I am very appreciative of this class for opening my eyes to new ways of understanding ethical issues.  My viewpoints have actually changed in some very unexpected ways.

I highly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in discussing and understanding ethics on a deeper, logical level and to anyone who just wants to take a fun class to fulfill their philosophy requirements or who is just looking for an interesting elective.  I think this is a good class for everyone to take.  It certainly requires an open mind, but if you stay open-minded, you are going to get so much out of this class.  Kevin Michael certainly teaches with a lot of love and truly wants us to love one another and to be serious in our search for truth.  And he is very understanding and forgiving as well.  When he tells us he loves us and wants us to spread love and practice forgiveness, he means it and he means it for each and every individual person.  He is a kind and beautiful man and I am very blessed to be in his class. 

Why Do We Have Religion Anyway? - Association for Psychological Science

Why Do We Have Religion Anyway? - Association for Psychological Science

While working on a paper for my Philosophy of Religion class, I stumbled upon the article above.  It's a pretty brief read and it's very interesting.  Basically, it discusses a connection between religious beliefs and self-control which I found to be intriguing.  I definitely recommend it.  But I have a paper due in 52 minutes, so that is all I will be writing tonight.  Ta Ta!