HUFFINGTON
09.15.13
THE BIG QUESTIONS
COURTESY OF BERNARD REGINSTER
Brown University philosophy chair Bernard Reginster introduces the program, “Happiness: What Your Mother Did Not Tell You.”
and work of a future investment
banker, economist or engineer?
Isabelle Wijangco, who graduated from Stanford last year with a
degree in human biology, is among
those who took the Meaning of
Life seminar in Sophomore College and said the course is part of
what spurred her to want to focus
on global women’s health issues
when she attends medical school.
“One of the big questions we
grappled with in Meaning of Life
was how to live every moment and
be fully present while also being
forward-looking and planning for
our hopes and dreams for ourselves and the world,” she said.
Wijangco recalled that a fellow
student described a way to strike
that balance by repeating a bit of
wisdom he heard from his father:
‘Lay each brick reverently. Lay a
purposeful brick, but be in the
moment of laying that brick. The
house will form.’”
She has carried that wisdom
with her ever since. “It has helped
serve as a metric for me in maintaining intentionality in every
action,” she said, “for both
present and future.”
Jaweed Kaleem is the nati onal religion reporter for The Huffington Post.