I love metaphors. An apt metaphor can help stimulate boundless creativity and can lead to a deeper and richer understanding of the concept being studied.
Who would you consult if you wanted to know a thing or two about the perfect society? Would you ask a politician? A professor of government? A philosopher expert in theories of utopia? Or perhaps a historian familiar with successful societies across the ages?
Ethics is a subject about which we all have many questions. What makes an ethical personality? How do we make ethical decisions in complicated circumstances?
Like any good grandparent, I have seen my share of little-league baseball games. Earlier this summer, I sat through an all-day tournament of four five-inning games. Not too excited about what was happening on the playing field, I found myself slipping into a half-dozing, half-contemplative mood.
It is at this point in time that we all begin to realize that the summer is ending. There is something about mid-August that says, "The summer is waning." School children begin to experience the anxieties that come with the anticipation of the return to school; vacationers hasten to relish the last of the "lazy, hazy days;" and the baseball season is at the stage when the pennant and wild-card races begin to really heat up.