Equal Angles & Earthly Goods

Though some students on the California High School Summer Program rose this morning with an ache or two from yesterday’s glorious games of watermelon water polo, all rose with excitement for the coming day. After the 7:15 a.m. Mass, students tore into cheddar-sausage biscuit sandwiches at breakfast in St. Joseph Commons, then headed off to their morning classes.

On the docket were Euclidean propositions concerned with constructing isosceles triangles, proving certain angles equal, and proving certain lines unequal. Each proposition built on the ones that preceded it, giving the process of mathematical discovery a concrete continuity. Now, with math in its more organic state, students saw the inter-connectedness of nearly every mathematical concept. Taught in isolation, math may seem dry; taught as it ought to be — considering mathematics from their first principles — it sparks unabashed wonder.

Students moved into prayerful contemplation at the midday Mass, after which they enjoyed a pizza lunch in St. Joseph Commons. Conversations abounded about Euclid and the afternoon’s upcoming Quad Race (more about that tomorrow). Then the prefects brough out a cake, and the whole group sang “Happy Birthday” to programmer Liam M!

From there, it was onto Boethius. In today’s reading, Lady Philosophy deftly demonstrates to Boethius the futility of earthly wealth and other temporal goods. Wealth, beauty, and honor — though they may be good in this life — have little staying power in the eternal schema, she shows. For this reason and others, true happiness can only be found in God and the acquisition of virtue — two goods eternally linked, one being the Highest Good while the other imitates Him.

Students will have plenty of opportunity to ask Fr. Sebastian about God, virtue, and more at tonight’s Theology on Tap. Come back tomorrow for an update!