I almost forgot

As time goes on, I am getting more and more ideas of books to buy. The problem of coming to a seminar like this is that you are surrounded by many book lovers. You talk about a subject and you give people ideas and they give you ideas and, well, it's going to get expensive for the pocket book, but I will appreciate the insights for sure. Every new instructor we get, they have books that are published and one wants to get their hands on all of them!

Also, as I said, I will have lots of notes when I return. One thing I have been very happy about is the language that I will need to engage the public square in the future. For example, George Weigel gave yesterday a distinction between "plurality" and "pluralism" and even defined pluralism according to a true understanding of how a society with pluralities ought to interact. Anyways, it is of a great value to have and will be going over my notes over and over again I am sure. I think I mentioned it yesterday, but I am seeing why this course is brought about, to encourage the next generation to engage the public square, to have the tools necessary so that one can see how the square can be engaged in one's own country. I have ideas of how to do this for Canada, and, Annette, it has to do with what we discussed before I left. Stay tuned everyone...:)

I do think, actually, that we REALLY need think tanks and that we need to create a culture that wants think tanks around to propose ideas and engage ones we see as false. Ideas have consequences, this is why JP II was a Pope of ideas, he saw the effects of ideas on his country, and so proposed new ideas to free his people, and look what happened. So now it is just a point of figuring out how to create a desire for such think tanks...

Harrison