Study Week Reflection

Sometimes we feel that life is passing us by; that life is happening to us; that we have failed to really soak in life. What causes this feeling? In my experience, it arises out of a general distractedness; a habit of anti-recollection; a refusal to just be. One of the causes is invariably technology. When I hop on the train after a day at university, I do not do what I ought: that is, recollect the day that has passed, the conversations I had, the lessons I learnt. Instead, I open my laptop or phone and consume more content. In doing so, I allow the experiences of my day to drift and fade, to become diluted in the next flood of information filling my attention. I fool myself into thinking that the more content I consume – whether it be knowledge or entertainment – the more I am getting from life. But if I never recollect my experiences, nor meditate upon the knowledge I have learnt - and by doing so cement it in my mind, soak it in, integrate it into who I am – if I let the gifts of life pass over me like a water over a rock, rather than soaking it in like a sponge, can I really say that I have much at all? And so, although it may seem contrary to appearances, I would like to propose that the more we allow ourselves to just sit and reflect, the more we will have, the more present we will be, and the richer and deeper our lives will become.

Philosophy and Theology Representative, Daniel Skinner