What I’m Reading: The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne

Montaigne’s collection has sat on my to-be-read list for some time now. Consisting of over 100 personal essays, across three books, it’s not your typical daily read. Thirteen hundred pages of 16th-century french philosophical musings are intimidating in idea alone. Of course, my fear washed away the moment I read the introduction, and Montaigne’s detrimental humor hit me square across the jaw. “I myself am the subject of my book: it is not reasonable that you should employ your leisure on a topic so frivolous and vain. Therefore, Farewell.” Against his recommendation, I read ahead, and I now look forward to every entry. The pages of his essays contain brilliant thoughts and confrontations only possible in the deepest moments of self-reflection. At the very least, we can look to Montaigne as a model for this practice, if not as a great source of reflections of our own. 

What I Wasn’t Expecting: To Enjoy ALL Of My Classes

There’s always one dud every year. The one class you slog through and hope the tests are simple enough that you can pick up what you need from Quizlet the night before. Maybe I’m jumping the gun, but it seems like for the first time in 17 years of school, that class doesn’t exist. Last week I committed to being more involved in formal education. Perhaps this is a payoff, though I doubt it. Maybe, against all sense, the idea that these classes will be my last has put me in a unique position to enjoy them for once. Whatever the reason, I’m happy to ride it out, enjoying what I can until its time to move on or the rug gets pulled out from under me.

A Quote I’m Thinking About:

If each man, on hearing a wise maxim, immediately looked to see how it properly applied to him, he would find that it was not so much a pithy saying as a whiplash applied to the habitual stupidity of his faculty and judegment.

-Montaigne

Action and practice are they key.