What the heck are "humanities," anyway?

I have a bad habit of not asking questions about important things, specifically when I feel like adding any more information to my brain might cause me to lose something useful.  "Yes, I know how to use all the functions of my cell phone, but my children's names?  Couldn't tell ya."  Sometimes it doesn't even occur to me to ask the questions.  I walk by signs and don't read them.  I may or may not briefly peruse instructions before pitching them over my shoulder and digging in to a project.  Not always the best plan.  I'm not sure if it's laziness or lack of caring. More laziness, I think; that sounds more forgivable.  My point in all this - I promise it's coming now - is that I never really thought much about the word "humanities."  I knew that when I had to choose a focus area for the BIS program, Humanities seemed the logical choice.  It's a nice, broad category, and I already had a lot of classes that fit the description.  All I really knew is that "Humanities" includes the classes I enjoy most.  It never occurred to me to think about it any more.
My English Lit class this semester includes a brief history of England relating to the Literature for each time period that we study.  Apparently it was around this time that people in England, influenced by Renaissance thinking elsewhere, decided that training for work in the Church wasn't the only good reason for higher education.  In addition to old favorites like logic, arithmetic, and astronomy, literature began to be seen as important for literacy and for understanding the human condition.  This new focus was referred to as humanism.  Of course humanism and the humanities have evolved greatly since then, and there are a couple of schools of thought pertaining to these topics.  I don't want to get into all that.  If anyone actually reads this (besides the person who already knows a lot more about all this than I ever will) and finds it interesting, I'm sure he or she will research it.  I obviously found it interesting and was thrilled to discover how the chosen focus for my degree program tied into my favorite school subject. 
The lesson in all this?  Don't be such a damn sheep.  Take off the blinders.  Stop going through life just accepting, never asking questions.  It's too easy to get so involved in getting through a project, getting the house clean, all the little details of life that we forget to think about anything else.  It's a lot more fun when you know "the rest of the story" as old Paul Harvey would say.  My last semester - hopefully - of twelve years of college, much of that spent working full-time, and I finally figure that out.  Let's see how long it takes me to implement it. 

Proctored Exams, Princesses and Poopy Diapers

Sorry, the three "P"s seem to occupy my thoughts an awful lot lately.  I just took a mid-term, which was my first experience with DELO testing at WKU.  Pretty amazing considering I've been at Western for twelve years and have taken numerous online courses.  As for princesses, my daughter is almost four, and certainly fits the description.  My youngest son is 18 months, and generates many of the last item. It seems that if one of the three is not occupying my time these days, the other two are.

The craziness stems from my discovery this past summer that I only needed two more classes to graduate, plus my capstone course.  Naturally I thought, "Great, I can do this!  No need to split it between two semesters!"  A normal, rational person would have said to herself, "Honey, you've been in and out of college for twelve years.  Why get in a hurry now?"  I, on the other hand, like to make things hard on myself.    Needless to say, with three kids - two of them under age five - it's been hectic.

The semester has also been SOOOO rewarding.  I am taking English 381, an English Lit Survey, and I love it!  I have discovered that I really have a thing for Shakespeare and John Donne - how could I have hated this stuff so much in high school?   The huge surprise, though, is how much I am enjoying English 401, Advanced Composition.  I hadn't taken a writing class since English 300, probably nine years ago, before this semester, so I was a little nervous.  Now, I keep saying that I wish I'd had this class fifteen years sooner.  It's given me so much great advice on how to go about the process and how to keep from getting discouraged.  I always thought that because I didn't have a complete novel floating around in my head I couldn't be a writer.  Now I know that "real" writers sometimes (often) struggle and agonize over every little sentence too.

Having said this, I offer a disclaimer, or perhaps a plea.   Reader, please reserve judgment as much as possible on my writing skills, or lack thereof.  I will do my best to avoid typos, but I seem to have a hard time finding my own mistakes.  Others' mistakes are much easier - ha!  I shall also endeavor to avoid rambling, and I'll try to be as entertaining as possible with what material I have.  If, after reading with a kind and open mind, you still think it sucks, please let me know what I could do to improve things.  I can handle constructive criticism, and it gets me all fired-up and self-righteous - perfect mood for writing.
~Hasta luego