Happy Belated New Year & Epiphany

Well, 2005 is gone and another year has come. And I'm already back at school. We run on a trimester system, which means this is the second trimester, and midterms are next week, which seems rather hard to believe; this school year is half-way out. My classes are all enjoyable, and keeping me busy with copious reading and some writing- the writing load isn't too bad this term. At the moment I am working on a paper concerning the place of prudentia in St. Thomas Aquinas's account of the virtues. In order to do so I have been reading quite a bit of the Angelic Doctor lately, along with his modern commentators. I think I know my function; I'm still not quite sure about prime matter and hylomorphism. Actually, Aquinas is a far more refreshing philosopher/theologian (as he never imagined a strict dichotomy between philosophy and theology) than most modern ones.

I'm going to forego ruminations on the now departed year; other than to say it was quite a year, for me anyway. I saw, experienced, and ate things I never imagined I would. Some of them I would love to seek out again; some not so much! But I can only thank God for the blessing bestowed, and fault myself for the blessings squandered. May He give us all guidance in the coming year (including the virtue of prudentia!).

Oh, the picture above was taken at the Yunnan Ethnic Minority Theme-Park place (something like that) in Kunming, China. I realized I had not posted it on here, and as it has to be one of my favorite photos (that I took anyway) from 2006, I had to post it. Yes I took it; and no, I'm really not sure what the sign is supposed to say, or how the unfortunate translators arrived at such a, um, interesting translation. I don't know; one might offer it an interpretation by which it encourages the creation of community, saying that we are nothing with our heads apart, but caution- the realization of the dangers of the world- compels us to come together. We must cast off our selfish withdrawl from the Other and unite. Of course, what the sign doesn't say is that we need a greater Principle of Unity than those provided by the world and the natural order.