Mark Hausam
My blogs
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education |
| Occupation | high school theology teacher, college philosophy instructor |
| Location | Columbia, MO, United States |
| Introduction | I am a member of the Catholic Church, a high school theology teacher, a college philosophy instructor, a husband, and a father. |
| Interests | My personality in general fits well within the classic INTP personality type. I love ideas. I love thinking about fundamental questions in philosophy and theology. I love getting to the bottom of things and trying to understand them clearly and consistently. I love analyzing claims, assumptions, and arguments. Contemplating ideas, arguments, systems of thought, etc., is to me akin to enjoying the beauty of music or the visual arts. I love sharing ideas with others. I enjoy dialoguing with people who share my beliefs and values and also with those who don't. I also love humor - especially playful and joyful humor. By "playful" humor, I mean humor that plays around with logic or conventions and tends towards the absurd - such as one finds in Alice and Wonderland, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the stories of Winnie the Pooh, the humor of Weird Al Yankovic, etc. By "joyful" humor, I refer to classic, fun, cheerful forms of humor such as one finds in 60s American sitcoms (The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, etc.) or movies from the same period (the classic Disney comedies, like The Absent-Minded Professor), or The Court Jester or the Muppet movies (the canonical ones made when Jim Henson was still around). I love walking and hiking. I love communal, seasonal celebrations (like Maying). I enjoy dancing. I would like to travel more. I would love to walk the Camino de Santiago or other classic pilgrimage routes to interesting places. I love reading theology and philosophy and history books, as well as science fiction and fantasy. I love the Middle Ages. I love movies and music (see below.) I'm a Star Trek fan. I also enjoy stories (books and movies) dealing with the Middle Ages, especially Arthurian stories and stories about Robin Hood. I love to sing. I love to sing with other people and harmonize. I love to teach. I love to write articles on theological and philosophical topics. I value and enjoy spending time with my kids. |
| Favorite Movies | Some of my favorite movies are The Lord of the Rings, UHF, the canonical Muppet movies (especially The Muppets Take Manhattan), The Court Jester, The Neverending Story, Star Trek movies (my favorite is Star Trek IV), the Star Wars movies, A Man For All Seasons, Joan of Arc (with Ingrid Bergman), 60s Disney movies, and lots of others.. |
| Favorite Music | My musical tastes are eclectic, including Celtic- and Norse-inspired and pagan folk music (SKÁLD, Faun, Enya, Loreena McKennitt, Blackmore's Night, Iona, etc.), medieval and renaissance music, Japanese koto and shakuhachi music, Baroque classical music (Bach, Geminiani, etc.), Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov), some EDM, movie music (like John Williams), Middle Eastern (Niyaz, Azam Ali, etc.) and in general a wide variety of ethnic music, and some contemporary Christian artists - particularly Randy Stonehill, Michael Card, and John Michael Talbot. |
| Favorite Books | The Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church; lots of sci-fi and fantasy novels (two current favorites are Timothy Zahn and Brandon Sanderson); novels based on Arthuriana and Robin Hood stories and in general rooted in the medieval period; historical fiction (especially rooted in the medieval period - a current favorite is Sharon Kay Penman); Le Morte d'Arthur (Thomas Mallory); George Berkeley's philosophical works on idealism; John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding; works by Steven D. Smith; works by Jonathan Edwards, especially The Freedom of the Will; Mere Christianity and the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis; the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings; the Harry Potter novels; The Winnie the Pooh stories of A.A.Milne; and many more. |
The squish of mud between your toes; how would you live your life as a frog?
Probably like pretty much every other frog, since frogs seem to live pretty much based on instinct and therefore don't have a lot of diversity in terms of personality, interests, beliefs, goals, etc.