Coincidence

During Monday's class period, Professor Sexson gave us the assignment to find something interesting that we usually consider quite boring. Yesterday, in reading for my English Methods class, I came across a proposal for English teachers to like reading student writing. In his article, "Ranking, Evaluation, and Liking," Elbow writes,

"How can we be better at liking? It feels as thought we have no choice--as though liking and not-liking just happen to us. I don't really understand this business. I'd love to hear discussion about the mystery of liking--the phenomenology of liking. I sense it's some kind of putting oneself out--or holding oneself open--but I can't see it clearly. I have a hunch,  however, that we're not so helpless about liking as we tend to feel" (201).

I like his ideas here because I can sympathize with the feeling of being unable to like something. For instance, it is challenging to enjoy a person who is proud and haughty. Like the certain aspects that student papers bad, the characteristics of pride and haughtiness that are repulsive in such a person. We still have the option of liking the paper despite all it's downfalls, and we also have the choice to like and care for a person who may demonstrate unfavorable characteristics. Elbow writes this idea in a very succinct way:

"It's an act of discrimination to see what's good in bad writing. Maybe, in fact, this is the secret of the mystery of liking: to be able to see potential goodness underneath badness" (203)

So the next time I am reading a book or other assigned text that is less than favorable, or listening to my grandpa tell the same stories, or watching worthless television, I hope to undertake the challenge of seeing the "potential goodness underneath badness."