At Grace Farms learning to live a 'Life Worth Living'
GRACE FARMS COURSE TACKLES THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS WE FACE
Modern life leaves little room for contemplation. People are constantly distracted by the need to do more, know more or get more.
There’s no time, it seems, to think about the larger questions, such as “Who am I?”; “Who do I want to be?” and “What makes life worth living?” At least, that’s been the experience of Matthew Croasman, faith initiative director at the Grace Farms Foundation in New Canaan.
“Our lives are too busy to process and to reflect, and certainly to engage in conversation, about life’s most pressing questions,” says Croasmun, also associate research scholar and director of the Life
Worth Living Program at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.
About three years ago, Croasmun launched “Life Worth Living,” a course that encourages people to think more deeply about their lives and purposes. It takes place annually at Grace Farms, 365 Lukes Wood Road, a public space that hosts a variety of
events and programs.
The class uses religious and philosophical teachings to help to people confront these existential topics — something few people have time for in their daily routines. Fortunately, Croasmun says, there are people who dedicated their lives to the topic of what it means to lead a fulfilling life.
“While people in the modern world only have time to think about strategies (to make life more efficient), the world’s great philosophers have been asking and answering these questions for thousands of years,” Croasmun says.
But where do modern people find the time? That can be challenging, Croasmun says. He recalls an exchange he had with a Yale student who pointed out that the world’s great thinkers have been debating the meaning of life for ages. “And he said ‘Now I’m supposed to come up with an answer in my spare time?’ ” Croasmun says.
He admits that the student had a point. Deep philosophical thinking “is not just going to happen in the flow of daily life,” Croasmun says. “You’ve got to make time for it.”
“Life Worth Living” provides space for people to take a close look at their lives and come up with their own answers about what gives them purpose.
During the sixweek class, students will be introduced to a variety of religious and philosophical texts. These include teachings from the big three religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — as well as Buddhism and other, lesser known faiths. But even those who don’t believe in a particular faith can benefit from the course, Croasmun says, adding that not all the texts used are religious. He says that, for example, works by Oscar Wilde and other writers are also part of the curriculum.
The idea isn’t to push a particular way of thinking onto participants, but to help them consider what their own philosophies might be. “We’re trying to break the quest for the good life down into its component parts,” Croasmun says.
He says each philosophy or religious tradition offers different answers about the meaning of life. The idea, Croasmun says, is to provide people with a variety of ideas and choices and let them build their own decisions.
The next “Life Worth Living” class runs from Oct. 29 through Dec. 10, but applications for the course, which costs $250, have already closed for this year. Croasmun says he’s considering having the class, which now takes place once a year, more often.
Much of the feedback he’s received from participants has been positive, he say. “We’ve had some alumni come back to Grace Farms (for another course,” Croasmun says. “A number of alums describe this event as lifechanging.”