talking to self

"Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself."

Plato

I am spending the day with myself in preparation for this evening. I am teaching for four hours this evening to a group at a local Seminary. I take five weeks worth of training and condense it into four hours in one evening. To do this effectively I need to lock myself away in an empty space and wait until I'm sure that the words and ideas I'm crafting have convinced my "self" of what I plan on saying. 

"We all know dogmatists who are more concerned about holding their opinions than about investigating their truth... if they are mistaken, they will never discover it; they have condemned themselves to perpetual error. Human beings (including myself) sometimes use their beliefs for wish-fulfillment. Too often we believe, what we want to be true."

 David L. Wolfe, Epistemology: The Justification of Belief.

In the hours ahead I plan to take a long hard look at what I'm claiming and why it could or should be considered valuable or even valid. I feel in my line of work there is far too much self-certainty and far too little self-reflection. 

Just because I will quote from The Bible this evening doesn't ensure what I say about those quotes is expressed accurately or applicably. 

Would you trust the image at the top of this post to express profound Truth? Or ask provoking Questions? What would I need to wear to make my words seem more trustworthy? 

One of the great things about taking myself to the "empty place" of solitude is that there I must perforce find the eloquence to elucidate daring ideas, for the purpose of convincing myself of profound things while wearing pajama pants and an old hoody. 

This day is set aside to convince and convert my "self" to some reasonably astounding ideas and theories so that when I say them out loud this evening to a small group of men and women those words will at least be my firmly held beliefs. 

Do you ever go into the "empty place" and check if you actually believe what you are saying?