#1 Image and Pilgrimage In Christian Culture

1.) “Iconoclasm is the simplest, if most draconic, solution; to purify the meaning, it destroys the vehicle. It does not recognize any necessary linkage between signifier and signified.” P. 144 Image and Pilgrimage In Christian Culture.

As a child, I always had a desire to break free from the bondage of the classroom. Feeling suppressed, I let my mind wonder to the creative worlds I could make up in my head. Daily, I questioned and challenged the task thrown at my misery to memorize or study. WHY? For myself, this institution is no medium for a successful life. I knew as a child, by no means would this institution signify me. Of course, by personal definition, success is a life defined by freedom, creativity, and productivity. This institution tried to reshape, and eventually redefine who I am as a “cookie cutter.” They succeeded, momentarily. They told me success looks similar to accolades, working nine to five, pretending to structurally have all ducks lined up ready to debate and oppose anything that could change my morals or beliefs. They engrained “conservatism” in my mind, but truly, underneath the siding, it was legalism. They wanted to mold me, as a product of their thirteen yearlong incubator. I was never told my identity, and I had a poor external locus of control which was taken advantage of by “administration.” This was another misconception I participated in believing. I believed that it was the roll of  the prison guards (educators) to educate me, after all, wouldn’t that make sense as a consumer of a product or a slave to an institution? Or was this part of their plan? I’m not a conspiracy theorist believing school has nothing valuable to teach. This intuition instilled a false sense of identity into my soul. They told me, “your only way of getting out is with a degree and that determines your only means of value.” Why were my passions not fostered? Sure, they were a little outsides of the “school” box. I believe that life itself, from inception, gives us an innate understanding that we don’t need an institution to define us. Human value is life’s most precious gift. In conclusion, their is more to life than “formal” education and life itself is the ultimate teacher, not an institution.  It’s life’s experiences, actions taken, and the passions inside a person that define someone’s value and not the false connection or linkage between an absolute value determined by a degree held by a person.