A Dim Sense of Ingenium

The student, in all his meager eighteen years of experience, has yet to find it possible to isolate a single idea. One of his earlier inklings of this concept—that all things are connected by underlying cosmic, eternal, and natural laws—took place when his high school physics teacher read his favorite translation of Newton’s First Law of Motion:

“Every body persists in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.”

The teacher went on to explain that the words “every body” (rather than “every object”) make the idea more applicable: a “body” could refer to a person, an inanimate object, or even an opinion; and a “force” could be any push or pull: the force of gravity, an electric charge, or a persuasive speech. This simple choice of words placed the written law closer to the Eternal Law that Newton may have been trying to describe.

Now, in the world of college-level classes, that same concept has flowered in the author’s mind, especially in relation to the theme of this semester’s writing and rhetoric class (transnationalism and globalization) and the humanities. In both cases, the student is encouraged to make connections between nations, use successful rhetoric to critique the arts, and find purpose and meaning in seemingly unrelated things. The very atmosphere of Brigham Young University seems to breath it: the gospel permeates every field of study, and every class begins with prayer.

The links are everywhere. No person—or idea—is an island.

Posted by S. Benjamin Puente