The Gray Area: A World of Meaning and Uncertainty

The ASRC is a community of complex minds that can have intense and in-depth conversations about seemingly meaningless topics. This is because in the mindset of arts and sciences there is always doubt, there are always questions, and there is never one solution. Everything in our world is complex and debatable because we tend to recognize that right and wrong are only relative. We have to be comfortable with the possibility that we are probably wrong about a lot of things. Our worldview is in the gray area of relativity and uncertainty. So instead of embarking on a journey for a destination or conducting an experiment for a conclusion, we are always on a quest for truth in which every bit of "truth" we may find is subject to scrutiny and will only generate more questions than it will answers. This is the mindset of human creativity in the arts and sciences that is full of uncertainty, paradox, wandering minds, and critical debate. This is the foundation of our community worldview in the ASRC.

If you can picture an environment in which there are always questions and rarely concrete answers, then you are imagining the first floor of Taylor Hall in the ASRC dorms. It is honestly pretty hard to tell the students we are going to or we have to do something without being ready to provide them with the "why".
Common questions when mentioning a program or activity:

• "Why do we need to do that?"
• "Why would I want to do that?"
• "What is the purpose of this?"
• "What do we have to gain from this?"

As you can imagine, it can be pretty challenging for me to propose anything to a group in the gray area without feeling like I have an answer to these questions before-hand. And the only way that I can really convince these inquisitive thinkers that something has a purpose is if I genuinely believe that it does myself. This is because they recognize that what I tell them won't be a concrete answer, but how I convey my response will indicate whether I really do believe in it or not. It is hard to fake meaning and purpose when you are in the mindset of human creativity with a worldview in the gray area. This is what is truly wonderful about my community though. The living and learning comes a lot easier when we have to find a "why" before we care about the "how" or want to do the "what". If there are two common LLC values that the ASRC will consistently display it is definitely: intellectual curiosity and love of learning. Those two values make our world go 'round.