Confirmation Sponsor Guy has an essay in the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, entitled, "Thomistic Conception of Impairment and Disability". That'll be a fun one to read, when the time comes.
When I commented on this exciting news, I separated out my thoughts from my feelings. I remember Professor Cross saying something in class, about the young people today. When they want to say "I think," they usually actually say, "I feel…" Actual thinking, however, is not done with the heart primarily, but the mind. A certain thing could be true, independent of what we feel about it. And if we are to avoid deconstructing everything according to an uncharitable assumption about the motivations of others, we should be bold to say, "I think…" The truth is that the nobility of saying "I think…" is the freedom to potentially later say, "I thought wrongly about that."
There is a scene in a TV show that I have enjoyed, where a schoolteacher with several male roommates is trying to get them to open up about their true feelings. She has a "feelings stick," and whoever is holding the feelings stick may say whatever they choose, presumably without reprisal. The scene is a bit crass, but I remember several times that the characters say "I feel…" when they really mean, "I think…"
Anyway, as a person with a disability, who has at least indirectly been influenced by the thought of Thomas Aquinas, I want to have a thoroughly Thomistic view of impairment and disability. As you may have heard, I am thinking and writing a lot about impairment and disability. Knowing St. Thomas, I know at the very least he will attempt to keep all his readers focused on their true final end. This is the foundation for the dignity which sometimes lacks expression and realization in our present society.
I know that in general, the work of my life will be to assist people of goodwill in rebuilding the kind of intellectual space where the dignity of all people is honored, understood, and defended.
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