Hello all! I am Aaron Beach and I study mathematics education. I have not always studied math nor have I always wanted to teach. I come from Lafayette, Indiana having come to Milwaukee to pursue my initial college career in the field of fine arts at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, looking to focus on painting. I like to produce art, yet it is not a passion of mine, and I decided it was not something I wished to pursue in college. But don't get me wrong, I love the process! "Passion" is a hard word for me. I often peruse thoughts of what my passion would be, and what I have found to be my passions I think would have to be: philosophy and communication. I fall on these two because they are very broad, and my interests indeed are very broad. But, they mostly fall in the categories of thinking and talking about what I have been thinking about.
Nonetheless, I do have many interests. One of them is actually math, believe it or not. And another is spirituality. I am very interested in the truth of things, and many seekers of truth shun spirituality, mostly I believe because of its link to religion. There is much to scorn for sure! Though, the subject is fascinating to me. I grew up going to church, yet when it came down to it I could not realistically affirm any belief in God. But, I knew there was some truth there. I have never wanted to shut out a thought just because my initial understanding said that I should, and especially with something that seems to be such a big part of many people who are dear to me. It is a controversial topic and there is much that I do not agree with, but so many people that I respect affirm belief in God in one form or another, so I could not logically be so naive to think that all of these people are 100% wrong. I have investigated Buddhism and found with meditation much truth. Having since left Christianity and returned to entertain any potential truth, I have found many connections between the two forms of thought. I like to say I am spiritual, and all this means to me is that I seek to understand a deeper truth to my life and the world around me. And to love people!
In any case, I want to bring up my connection to spirituality because of the topic I would like to pursue with this blog. It is not something I know a lot about but through spiritual communities of which I am a part I have learned enough to spark my interest. This topic is broadly: "Sacred Geometry". More specifically, I would like to pursue the Golden Ratio, the Platonic Solids and the Flower of Life with other of its associated forms. From my initial understanding, these are all intricately connected. One side screams "spirituality!" while the other screams "mathematics!" I would like to explore these connections to see just what is going on. I am very excited to share what I will find out!
Aaron, I am looking forward to reading your blog posts in the future. This topic sounds like one you can really connect with. As for your thoughts on passion, there is no reason why you can't combine your passions of communication and philosophy into math, and art fits even more directly! Finding something you enjoy is all of life's journey and I think you will have a lot to share as a math teacher.
ReplyDeleteI never was very good at geometry in high school, but I feel you are very well versed and I'm excited to see how you go about teaching truths in sacred geometry. I'm also excited just to learn more about these specific topics especially the golden ratio.
ReplyDeleteAaron, what a wonderful way to begin your inquiry on Sacred Geometry! I loved reading your post about your background with this topic and I thank you for sharing that. It really helps me understand where you are coming from and appreciate your project that much more. I think it is so exciting to find math in places in nature that some people would never suspect it lies! This is definitely the type of thing I want to share with my students every once and awhile to remind them the importance of math and its strong presence in the world around us.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting Aaron. I too was brought up to be religious, but couldn't affirm faith in God. But for better or worse, I now believe in a creator. So, sacred geometry is very interesting. If these sacred patterns somehow are a map of the truth that would be very interesting indeed! I look forward to read more about these sacred geometries.
ReplyDeleteI also consider myself a truth seeker and love philosophy and talking about philosophy. So I look forward to hearing your thoughts about philosophy if you'd like to include that too!
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed with how well you are able to articulate your journey and how the various fields of art, math, philosophy, and religion intersect. Very good reading!!
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