Reflection Can Lead To Conversion

by Eve Avila

As a mom to early twenty-somethings, I am always the boss, because I know everything.  But since I enrolled in Philo 101,  I seem to be in the experience of ontological humility (a humbler way of existing).
Now I know that I do not know a lot and I can even learn not just from the “lilies of the fields” and the “birds of the air”, but from my children themselves.

I was with my son last Sunday at our usual study joint in Starbucks Libis.  On our way out, he was looking for his umbrella in the stand, and it wasn’t there.  He called his group mate who borrowed it earlier to confirm if he had put it back in the stand and he said he did.  After searching again and waiting (in the hope that someone just took it momentarily),  we gave up and left without it.

As the boss, I told my son to immediately call his friend and tell him that the umbrella wasn’t there.  I had hot spasms when my son said, “No Mom, I don’t have to call him now about it.  He might feel guilty, but it is not his fault.  And besides, it is already late and he may not be able to sleep worrying and he is just as stressed as me preparing for our final exams”.


I relate this anecdote to what I learned today from the lecture of TA Earl.  As I gather my lived experience,  I  do not profess to remember the philosophical vocabulary such as existential fulcrum, metaphysical unease, intermediary thinking, existential phenomenology,  but surely I will remember to be patient, truthful, kind and to help others live a human life.