Humility from Autobiography
One of the themes that keeps repeating in my head with regard to this class is the idea of intellectual humility. I wrote in a previously blog about humility as a theme in Anderson's book, and I think I'm beginning to get a clearer sense of what this has to do with autobiography in general.
In class on Wednesday we talked about autobiography as a way to connect to something outside of history, and outside of ourselves even. So, when we write autobiographically, we are actually describing a drop of time that can then be related to something bigger than ourselves. (Does that make sense? I'm still tyring to work out this issue...)
I think that writing autobiographically is an effective way to create intellectual humility in our own lives. One thing I love about Augustine is his openness about his mistakes. He describes things that maybe some people wouldn't even think twice about, and he explains the misery of his sin and his deep need for God's grace. Augustine writes humbly, never claiming to be better than he is. He acknowledges certain academic gifts (such as his aptitude for learning in school), but he also plainly describes his mistakes. Of course, we may never know all the things that Augustine left out of his autobiography, but the things he chose to write about are humbling experiences. He writes about his experiences as a way to humble himself and exalt God in his own heart and mind.
I'm beginning to see how wonderful it can be to honestly evaluate our own personal experiences. I think that, no matter where we come from, our experiences have value. Even lives that may be considered banal by some, have value. In fact, I think the more personal our writing, the more our writing points to something other than ourselves. Why do we read autobiography? Not because we can necessarily relate to the specific events that the author describes, but so that we can see a person's humanity, so that we can see something greater in a life that is just a moment in time. Our lives are short, but autobiography can help makes sense of the world around us.
When I relate events of my own life, for example, to other people, a lot of people have the tendency to think that what I've experienced is harder, or more intense than the experiences of some others. I was born in England (to American parents), when I was 11 we moved to Russia, and then when I graduated from highschool in Russia I went to Canada for a year before finally coming to the U.S. I've seen a lot of interesting/exciting/scary/crazy things, and I'm thankful for all the things I've experienced. But my life isn't inherently better than someone who may have lived all their life in the same small Oregon town. My experiences are as valuable as I make them. What's important is not necessarily what we've experienced, but rather how we respond to our experiences.
(But as a side note, living in Russia was AMAZING, and it completely changed everything for me. That's vague, but I'll leave it that way.)
But to write autobiographically is to make oneself vulnerable, and this is where the idea of humility comes in. I know that I many ways I am a very closed person to other people, because I don't want to open up about things that they may misinterpret or not understand. I don't want to tell everyone everything about my life, because some things are personal, and I want to save them for people I know, for people I trust. I'm acutely aware of my vulnerability when I open up to people more than usual. But this humility and vulnerability is what makes autobiography so important and valuable.
In class on Wednesday we talked about autobiography as a way to connect to something outside of history, and outside of ourselves even. So, when we write autobiographically, we are actually describing a drop of time that can then be related to something bigger than ourselves. (Does that make sense? I'm still tyring to work out this issue...)
I think that writing autobiographically is an effective way to create intellectual humility in our own lives. One thing I love about Augustine is his openness about his mistakes. He describes things that maybe some people wouldn't even think twice about, and he explains the misery of his sin and his deep need for God's grace. Augustine writes humbly, never claiming to be better than he is. He acknowledges certain academic gifts (such as his aptitude for learning in school), but he also plainly describes his mistakes. Of course, we may never know all the things that Augustine left out of his autobiography, but the things he chose to write about are humbling experiences. He writes about his experiences as a way to humble himself and exalt God in his own heart and mind.
I'm beginning to see how wonderful it can be to honestly evaluate our own personal experiences. I think that, no matter where we come from, our experiences have value. Even lives that may be considered banal by some, have value. In fact, I think the more personal our writing, the more our writing points to something other than ourselves. Why do we read autobiography? Not because we can necessarily relate to the specific events that the author describes, but so that we can see a person's humanity, so that we can see something greater in a life that is just a moment in time. Our lives are short, but autobiography can help makes sense of the world around us.
When I relate events of my own life, for example, to other people, a lot of people have the tendency to think that what I've experienced is harder, or more intense than the experiences of some others. I was born in England (to American parents), when I was 11 we moved to Russia, and then when I graduated from highschool in Russia I went to Canada for a year before finally coming to the U.S. I've seen a lot of interesting/exciting/scary/crazy things, and I'm thankful for all the things I've experienced. But my life isn't inherently better than someone who may have lived all their life in the same small Oregon town. My experiences are as valuable as I make them. What's important is not necessarily what we've experienced, but rather how we respond to our experiences.
(But as a side note, living in Russia was AMAZING, and it completely changed everything for me. That's vague, but I'll leave it that way.)
But to write autobiographically is to make oneself vulnerable, and this is where the idea of humility comes in. I know that I many ways I am a very closed person to other people, because I don't want to open up about things that they may misinterpret or not understand. I don't want to tell everyone everything about my life, because some things are personal, and I want to save them for people I know, for people I trust. I'm acutely aware of my vulnerability when I open up to people more than usual. But this humility and vulnerability is what makes autobiography so important and valuable.
posted by Christine at 11:15 AM
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