London-Roma-1980 t1_j7lxoz8 wrote on February 7, 2023 at 7:27 PM

"It's been said that the true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life. I can assure you, class, that this statement is both true and false. It all depends on whether you view life as macro or micro; and that distinction will be the game-changer that will determine if you are healthy or twisted."

Looks of confusion scattered around the economics lecture hall at Saint Stephen's. "Macro" and "Micro" fit the class, but nothing else did. Father Jonathan noticed them, held up a finger of patience, and continued.

"On the balance," he began, "the macro world sees life as a pursuit. Things like money and power are their own reward. The only limit is supply. To a man obsessed with only earthly things, there is no endgame, no diminishing returns. There is only more.

"Very often, this leads to the macro level being polluted by horrible individuals, those who see only themselves as the person to satisfy. To them, the misery of others is a trivium of daily life. Morals and rules are fungible. A simple kind act that only God sees is a waste of time.

"Economics is the 'dismal science' for a reason," he added to a few laughs from the students.

"You have spent this year learning a cold, mechanical, macro view. It will make you successful, but it will make you depressed and decrepit. Jesus said there are those who care only about the world. You are called to be more. You are called to improve the world, and to do so with a single-minded gusto of a whirling dervish. But to make the world better, you must make your world better, through love and happiness." He paused.

"Of course, this requires you to know your world. It's not the world. Leave that for the leaders. Social media would leave you overwhelmed. Your world is that which you interact with, and those details of daily life are your life. Show them love, as God has shown you love, and happiness follows.

"Understanding this is the key," Jonathan added as he turned around to face the class, now fully paying attention. "You will slip, you will fail on occasion, but never stop being kind to those who are your details!

"And when you let your hearts be ravenous for joy and for spreading joy through kindness, then all I've taught you about money gets a proper perspective. This learning is a tool for providing more to those who need it. Never forget your main goal from God: to love everything in your life. Even the details.

"Life is not zero-sum," he concluded. "Make your world better, and you make the world better. Deus vult... God wills it, and you deserve it.

"Let me thank you for taking my course this year. You give me happiness. Class dismissed."

[word count 479]

FyeNite t1_j7m70x3 wrote on February 7, 2023 at 8:27 PM

Hey Duke,

I think you've done a wonderful job here with the speech format of storytelling. Whilst the only dialogue was from Jonathan, you do a good job of showing the crowd's reaction.

> he added to a few laughs from the students.

A nice detail to add. I also liked how you used the few dialogue tags that are there to really characterise how the teacher spoke. What he was doing and so on.

I do just have a few bits and bibs for you though,

> Looks of confusion scattered around the economics lecture hall at Saint Stephen's. "Macro" and "Micro" fit the class,

First: The first bit of this line reads a bit strange to me. I feel like "were shared" may work better over "scattered"? It just feels like the sentence is incomplete, but that could just be me.

Second: using quotation marks ('') rather than speech marks ("") for ""Macro" and "Micro"" may be better. I just say this because you have speech in this piece, so it can be confusing if these two words are actually spoken, or just quoted.

> You have spent this year learning a cold, mechanical, macro view.

And finally, I think telling us that this is the end of the year a bit earlier could help. I assumed that this was a start-of-year speech by the teacher. 'You're about to learn so and so, but always remember this' kind of thing.

It could help if you referenced how far the students were into the course a little earlier.

But as for all of these things, it could just be preference stuff, so feel free to use or not use it.

I hope this helps.

Good Words!

London-Roma-1980 t1_j7md80z wrote on February 7, 2023 at 9:06 PM

Thanks for the help, Fye. I'm usually not the type to do ninja edits, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it!

Stop by campfire to hear it! :)

wordsonthewind t1_j7se76m wrote on February 9, 2023 at 1:46 AM

I would take economics lessons from Father Jonathan. He's got a good perspective and really knows how to keep an audience's attention. I appreciated the occasional mentions of the students' reactions; they kept the whole thing from being a straight-up monologue.

As for crit, I'm assuming Father Jonathan hews closer to a micro view: it fits with his emphasis on the little details of life and his advice to focus on changing your world instead of the world. I think I'd have liked that to be more explicit, if only to tie up that tiny loose end where he brought up "macro" and "micro" and then only detailed the "macro" worldview. On a somewhat related note, the economic terms he dropped throughout his speech were a nice touch too.

Good words!