Moreau Integration 3 - Metacognition and Mindfulness O’Connor 1 Cashel O’Connor Father Kevin Integration 3 March 2022 The Man in the Arena In reading the prompt sheet, I noticed the phrase “that what we want–insight or understanding–not certainty.” This reminded me of my PLS seminar, specifically “The Histories” by Herodotus. The great Persian King Xerxes, on his way to invade the Greek city-states, says to his uncle, “Certainty, surely, is beyond human grasp” (Herodotus 435). In fact, from what I have read in class the ancient Greeks seem to believe that the only certainty in life is death. A rather fatalistic outlook on life; however, it really helped me put into perspective my own life. The only thing I can truly be certain of is death, so why stress myself out trying to be certain about anything? Instead, I resolve to practice what I now know is called mindfulness. Through this, I hope to gain insight, not certainty. To begin, I want to talk about my convictions. They are simple: I want to be a nice person, I want to be successful, and I want to be fulfilled. Note that these are my answers to the question “is this a source of joy?” posed by Father Michael Himes’ in “Three Questions.” (Himes) Let us start with the first one. I want to be a nice person but there is more to it than just that. My actions must be kind as well, not just my words. When I look back on the life I have lived, I want to be able to say that I lived a good life. Helping others, mentoring people, sharing my passions with the world – these must happen if I am to say I was a nice person. Secondly, I want to be a successful person. I see success as somewhat necessary for me to be happy. They are not complements by any means, but they are not mutually exclusive either. Positively O’Connor 2 correlated, certainly, but not a perfect correlation. If I succeed then I feel I will be better able to facilitate my own happiness, both through selfish pursuits and giving back to others. This is why I want to be a professor later on in life. I plan to go out into the world and fail. I will succeed sometimes, yes, but as a ski instructor once told me: “If you aren’t falling you aren’t learning.” Once I have failed enough that I am successful, I want to teach the lessons I have learned. There is no point in experiencing failure, and life as a whole, alone. If great men had not shared what they learned, I would be hunting and gathering for nuts right now. This aspect of sharing my experiences leads me to my third point, fulfillment. Fulfillment is something that I believe comes at the end of our lives. Happiness and joy are fleeting moments of fulfillment that we experience on the path to fulfillment – they give us a taste of the greatness that is to come. Integration, in a math sense, is regarded as the process of adding up many parts. To this end, the summation of these three convictions is what I want to achieve in my life. As the man in the arena, I am constantly fighting for this. Mindfulness is a powerful new weapon that I hope to yield moving forward. Now that I know how to know who I am, I am better able to become who I want to become. The second aspect to look at is metacognition. This is, as the prompt says, thinking about thinking. Metacognition allows us to look past what I see as the binary in our lives. As Tasha Eurich said, we need to “ask what not why” (Eurich 2017). This is key if I really want to live a life worth living. I have said that I want to fail, and fail often. Metacognition will allow me to see what caused me to fail. This is essential. I cannot become a sheep, as Deresiewicz puts it. He claims that Ivy students, the cream of the crop, have been taught how “to ‘be a student,’ not to use their minds” (Deresiewicz 2014). I am glad that I have been enlightened to the rat race that seemingly plagues the American teenage experience, and I am ready to change. When I O’Connor 3 encounter a setback, or even succeed, I will seek out what the root cause was. Like Deresiewiczsays, “What we don't have, in other words, are thinkers. People who can think for themselves” (Deresiewicz 2010). I need to learn to think for myself. It is time to get off the treadmill. I touched on my PLS seminar earlier in this paper and would like to speak more on it. Switching into PLS was, what I believe to be, me thinking for myself. It was what I wanted to do, not what my parents, teachers, or future employers wanted me to do. This leap of faith was just that: a leap. It was frightening to pursue my passion. Maybe that is because I was once a sheep, to use Deresiewicz’s language. So far, I have loved it. The texts are engaging and the seminar aspect of the class offers me a chance to hear the perspectives of others – something that I now realize is essential to the learning process. This was one of the first times in my life that I did something that I wanted, not in a selfish sense, but out of pure zeal to learn something new. I finally found a way to translate my passion for reading into something greater. In my first Integration I spoke of becoming a vintager in the vineyard of my mind, harvesting the fruits of my labor at the end of my life. Back then, however, I was lost. I had a goal but no path, no map. Now, with mindfulness and metacognition, I think I may be found. I now believe that it is possible for me to reach my end goal. Now that I know what I must do, the onus is mine to bear as the man in the arena. As Teddy Roosevelt said in his speech The Man in the Arena: “There is no effort without error” (Roosevelt 1910). I will try and I will fail. Many times. However, I look forward to this challenge. Imagine the moment I realize I am fulfilled, how great that will feel. To reflect on my entire life and feel joy. That is truly what I want.