What’s a hike that ruined all other hikes for you?
The upper Yosemite falls trail is mine: epic views of Half dome, a viewpoint where you can see upper middle and lower Yosemite falls, hiking up the side of upper falls and getting a mist bath, and getting to look down from the top.
Def a butt kicker but worth it!
The seven liberal arts were never a miscellaneous curriculum.
They were a ladder of formation.
Grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy trained the person to speak, reason, measure, harmonize, and contemplate order. The trivium came first because language can either reveal or corrupt thought.
Grammar gave structure. Rhetoric taught responsible persuasion. Logic tested the joints of argument.
Without these, higher studies become impressive confusion. A mind that cannot distinguish a valid inference from a pleasing phrase is easily led. The quadrivium then turned the student toward measure.
Arithmetic considered number in itself. Geometry considered number in space. Music considered number in time. Astronomy considered number in motion.
This sequence is beautiful because it expands without abandoning discipline. Modern education often separates utility from contemplation. The older model did not.
To learn was to be shaped. The arts were called liberal because they belonged to a free person, not because they were casual. Freedom required inner order. Their hidden severity should be remembered.
The seven arts do not flatter the untutored self.
They correct it.
They teach the tongue to serve truth, the mind to reject contradiction, the eye to honor proportion, and the soul to look upward without losing exactness. A ladder is useless if admired from the ground. It must be climbed.
@bay_photography Since I’m feeling Yosemite, the burley hike up snow creek trail where lies a secret 🤐 worth it if you seek, at the base of Watkins. Climb to the summit of Watkins and gulp that view of half dome. It’s ass climbing out of the valley on snow creek trail but worth it!