Evil And Memoir

James Zull writes of the Just Transformation in a way that captures my
interest.  He's a biologist, not an educator, although he very much is
that, too.

In writing about the art of changing the brain, he notes the
transformation from knowledge to meaning in each one of us involves
three individual transformations "data"...

1. from outside to inside - anything anyone tells you outside yourself
until you process the information and more importantly act with and on
the information so that it becomes your own

2. from past to present - anything anyone tells you is not yours; it is
past until you process the information and more importantly act with and
on the information so that it becomes your own

3. from doing what you think someone wants you to do with the
information to doing what you want to do with the information - in other
words, becoming personally empowered with what you know, using what you
know for your own purposes

Bomer uses the words "retrospective" (Lejeune) and "a second reading of
experience" (Gusdorf) to help her distinguish Memoir from Journal from
Diary.  These words imply the individual has changed the nature of what their
life has been to them by intentionally dedicating themselves to
understanding their moments on earth more fully.  This is the reflective process
and the very act of composition is an action that leads to enriched, enhanced,
elaborated understandings of who I am and by implication, who we all are
in this great river of life.  What a gift.

I just wish the people whose actions I hate - I know, that's a strong
word and one I don't often use - would be as reflective as the people I
love.  Might I better understand their lenses?   But then again, if they
were, might I not have cause to hate them?