Vermont Public Philosophy Week

 Yes, this is actually a thing - and, strangely enough, I'll be giving a talk during Vermont Public Philosophy Week. As with most things, I came to this fairly innocently. My great friend Erik Esskilsen was asked by the UVM professor who runs the series to talk. EE had, as is his wont, said something fascinating/provocative in a newspaper article so Tyler asked him to speak, and he would have done a great job. However, Erik and his family are going to be out of the country, so he passed along my name instead. As is well-documented, I hate public speaking with the fiery passion of a thousand suns (mainly, it just makes me very nervous). Still, I agreed because I do like to support local efforts, especially those designed to provide a more meaningful and intelligent public dialogue (although having me speak isn't guaranteed to produce either). I asked Tyler if I could give my talk out here in the wilderness, as compared to the big city (at least our big city) of Burlington. He loved the idea and said that one of his goals was to have talks all around the state and not simply in Chittenden county. Then I proposed a talk based on Three Books That (maybe, potentially, hopefully) Made Me A Better Person, which would feature the Qur'an, Marcus Aurelius, and Proust. He also loved that idea. Clearly, Tyler is made of sterner stuff, and my clumsy attempts to get out of the talk were all for naught. So, I guess I have to pull something together. Actually, I think it could be a fun topic and talk, and I don't have to drive more than a couple miles to bore or annoy people (normally I have to drive to campus to do that).