“Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste…”
Said the Devil, according to the Rolling Stones at least. Cryptic as it may seem, I’ve come to interpret that line as a call to action to open my mind and appreciate the world from as many perspectives as I can. Sound like a stretch? I’ll explain later. But first, please allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Jack. I’m a senior in high school, and this blog is an ongoing assignment for my English class. I love music, I love the outdoors, I love adventure, and I love exploring. I’m sure all of those will come up in some way throughout future posts on this blog, but I’d like to touch on the last one now. More than in just a physical sense of the word, I like to consider myself an explorer; I’ve come to realize over the last seventeen years that we live in a very diverse, and ever-changing world. My curiosity pushes me to approach the world and its happenings from many different angles and perspectives as I see it change. With this blog I hope to explore various opinions, arguments, and questions when looking at anything from world news to the literature I read in English class, opinions that in many cases will not actually be what I believe, but it is my hope that by attempting to understand these different perspectives, I’ll gain a greater appreciation for the subject matter I’m discussing, and the world at large.
I think the Stones were really onto something when they described the Devil as being a man of wealth and taste. Maybe the arguments that we disagree with aren’t as backwards as we think, and are actually coming from equally observant, intellectual, sophisticated people that we all too often discredit as automatically being wrong, because we don’t have enough sympathy for their point of view. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a “Devil’s Advocate” sort of blog, because I don’t think I’ll always be contradicting popular opinion; I’m looking more to simply shed light on various opinions that would otherwise be cast off as flawed or wrong, and find the value in approaching things from multiple angles. So, if you’re willing, allow yourself to open your mind, as I open mine, and offer this world a little more sympathy.
