This morning during prayer my thoughts drifted into the idea of critical thinking. I thought of it as a filter. There have been times when this concept has come up in conversation and the terms critical thinking have not seemed precisely right, it seems too aggressive. Maybe critical filter, or rational filter, or filter of reason is more appropriate.

In Personal Adjustment class our professor talked more about death and dying. It was very helpful in understanding how to be attentive to the needs of those coping with death or life crisis. I thought of my friend with a serious illness, and of my sister with cancer.

This got me thinking about Kubler-Ross's 5 stages of death. I thought about how this could be helpful for both those near, and the person themselves, in understanding the psychological states in the process of dying. I thought about how this could facilitate the state of acceptance and help improve the time that the person has and perhaps in their legacy.

My biggest interest in these stages however, is in relation to all the other losses and changes in life. We talked about the losses in our lives and drew pictures of them. I remembered how i went to the Kubler-Ross website and looked into her books and found out that she and others apply the stages in this way.

I think this will be extremely helpful in helping those struggling to admit their addiction to understand where they are and move towards action.

During Human Growth and Development class a discussion ensued about the condition of learned helplessness. There was a guy in class who couldn't get how people could fall into this behavior. I thought of all the book reports in Personal Adjustment class that covered the deeply traumatic lives of people that explain this problem. I realized how much I have befitted from these accounts, however difficult they were to sit through.