-
Text II
The Art of
Acknowledgement
Jean
Houston
Lead-in
Questions
Have
you
ever
experienced
any
predicament
in
life?
What
is
the
force
that
drives
you
to
come
through
difficulties
and
makes you
confident
toward
the
future?
Or if you think you
lack such force or strength, where do
you think such force can derive from?
Main idea
In a vivid story, the writer tells us
how she
had been so confident, arrogant
and even rude a student,
how
she
became
poorly-spirited
after
several
disastrous
events,
and
how
she
regained
the
self-confidence
and
self-respect with the help of a
teacher. Through this story,
the
writer
tries
to
illustrate
that
the
greatest
of
human
potentials is the
potential of each one of us to empower
and acknowledge the other, and that our
greatest genius
may be the ability to
prime the healing and evolutionary
circuits of one another.
Notes
1.
About
the
author
and
the
text
Jean
Houston,
Ph.D.
(1937-)
has
been
a
leading
figure
in
the
cross-cultural
study of New Thought spirituality and
ritual processes. A
prolific author of
books, her PBS Special A Passion for
the Possible has been widely viewed.
2.
off-Broadway
(Paragraph
1)
Off
Broadway
theater
is
an umbrella term for a
defined
set of plays,
musicals or
revues performed in New
York City. Originally referring
to the
location of a venue and its productions on a
street
intersecting
Broadway
in
Manhattan's
Theatre
District,
the
hub
of
the theater
industry in
the
United
States,
the
term
later
became
defined
by
the
League
of
Off-
Broadway
Theatres
and
Producers as
a
professional
venue in New
York City with a seating capacity between
99 and 500, or a specific production
that appears in such
a venue. Off
Broadway shows, performers, and creative
staff are eligible for nomination for
the New York Drama
Critics' Circle
Award, the Outer Circle Critics Award, the
Drama
Desk
Award,
the
Obie
Award
(presented
since
1956 by The Village V
oice),
and the Lucille Lortel Award
(created
in
1985
by
the
League
of
Off
Broadway
Theatres & Producers).
3.
on the top of
the heap (Paragraph 1) above everybody
else
4.
Job (Paragraph 5) Job is a gentile man
in the Book of
Job in the Hebrew Bible,
as
well as a prophet in
Islam.
In
brief,
the
book
begins
with
an
introduction
to
Job's
character
—
he is described as a
blessed man who lives
righteously.
Satan,
however,
challenges
Job's
integrity,
arguing
that
Job
serves
God
simply
because
of
the
removes
that
protection,
allowing
Satan
to
take
his
wealth, his children,
and his physical health. Job remains
loyal
throughout,
and
does
not
curse
God.
The
main
portion of the text
consists of the discourse of Job and his
three friends concerning why Job was so
punished, after
which
God
steps
in
to
answer
Job
and
his
friends.
The
Lord
blessed
the
latter
days
of
Job
more
than
his
beginning and he lived
140 years (Job 42:10, 17).
5.
St. Paul and
Nietzsche (Paragraph 6) Saint Paul, also
called
Paul
the
Apostle,
the
Apostle
Paul
or
Paul
of
Tarsus
was
a
Hellenistic
Jew,
who
called
himself
the
to
the
Gentiles
and
was,
together
with
Saint
Peter
and
James
the
Just,
the
most
notable
of
early
Christian
missionaries.
His
efforts
to
accept
gentile
converts and to define the Torah as
superseded by Christ
were
successful
and
“decisive.”
Nietzsche
(1844
-1900)
was
a
nineteenth-century
German
philosopher
and
classical
philologist.
He
wrote
critical
texts
on
religion,
morality,
contemporary culture, philosophy, and science.
Nietzsche's
influence
remains
substantial
within
and
beyond
philosophy,
notably
in
existentialism
and
postmodernism.
6.
Hegel
(Paragraph
7)
Georg
Wilhelm
Friedrich
Hegel
(1770-1831) was a German
philosopher, and one of the
creators
of
German
idealism.
Hegel
developed
a
comprehensive philosophical framework,
or
account in an integrated and
developmental way for the
relation
of
mind
and
nature,
the
subject
and
object
of
knowledge,
and
psychology,
the
state,
history,
art,
religion, and
philosophy.
7.
Sorbonne
(Paragraph
7)
The
name
Sorbonne
(La
Sorbonne)
is
commonly
used
to
refer
to
the
historic
University
of
Paris
in
Paris,
France
or
one
of
its
successor
institutions.
8.
Teilhard de
Chardin (Paragraph 20) Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin
was
a
French
philosopher
and
Jesuit
priest
who
was
trained
as
a
paleontologist
and
geologist
and
took
part
in
the
discovery
of
Peking
Man.
Teilhard's
primary
book,
The
Phenomenon
of
Man,
set
forth
a