On a related note, I was speaking to Chaplain Ed Christman the other day and promised him that I would consider this question in a column. The question that he asked me was, "Can college students be still?" I thought about that for a few days that turned into two weeks, and now I realize more what the chaplain was suggesting and what it involves. Being still is more involved than being asleep, though the answer to his question in regards to motion is fairly easy to answer.

Think about your typical day. If you're like most people I know, you get up in the morning. After this common action, the diversity of specific activities in which you can involve yourself is almost boundless. However, the common thread running through all of them is action. You have to leave your room to go to class, then sit in class and hopefully think and ask questions. After class, you might go to Benson or the Pit with some friends and talk about what you did for the weekend immediately prior to this one or what you will do for the weekend immediately following. After you finish with the fun for the day, you might go to the library or your room to read, do some homework or any of the innumerable things that people do in the comfort of their rooms.

During or after this period, you might IM the same friends you saw in Benson, talk with your roommate, go to a meeting for a sorority, fraternity, or other club and then study some more. I can't, offhand, think of anything that I do on a standard day that does not involve either thinking about some topic specifically or talking with friends about something or someone. At no point during this hypothetical day, which is a woefully inadequate summary of the complex day of a typical student, was there any time for introspection.

The two paragraphs appearing above are not related on the surface, but I would argue that they can and should be related at a deeper level. Activities are fine and good, and they do provide an opportunity to be involved in the greater world community. However, by definition, activities involve dynamic action, and value that far above introspection. And while it may seem that you don't have the luxury of being still and not doing anything for a time, consider that some of the greatest minds in history did their work alone.

Do you think that Thoreau could have written Walden if he'd had Instant Messenger on his laptop? Could Edison have harnessed electricity while talking on his cell phone? Did Shakespeare learn to write in class? Give yourself a chance and you may discover that the most valuable time for learning is not the time you spend in lab or class, and the most valuable contribution you make to the outside world isn't that banner you hang in the Pit, but that cogent argument for your position that you think of and refine in solitary self-examination.

This column took a little heavier note than I intended. Keep in mind that I don't necessarily support a society of misanthropes, but I do want to remind people that, particularly in the environment of violence and dramatic change that is overtaking our world, it is extremely important to not get caught up in doing things so much that you lose touch with who you are.