The words are everywhere: on sweatshirts, in course titles, on book covers, in planning goals and objectives and in airports.

Now that the sweatshirts are gone, let’s rethink the banner also. Loyola’s ad campaign was a brilliant way to pull Loyola’s image away from endless streetcars and Bourbon Street, but the branding of Loyola University as Critical Thinking University has implications that we may not have anticipated.

Much like Marlboro Men or the Barbie Girls, we have succumbed to quick labels in our discourse and debates. Anytime any controversial perspective hits the campus, we cry out: “Hey, what about ‘critical Thinking?’ Where’s the other side?” We set up a debate or take a left/right line and battle. When our team wins or loses, we cheer or write letters or drum, as though we have left a football game having won or lost a bet.

Actually, thinking critically is a complex process, essentially a commitment to oppose verbal combat. In fact, thinking critically should lead us to perception, reflection and discernment. The process of critical thinking should help us find our way to beliefs, values, actions and even life choices. We seek evidence, evaluate assumptions, biases, values, flaws, consequences and validity. We wonder.

If we rely upon the process of critical thinking as the sole objective of learning rather than as a method of discovering truth, we glorify the kind of endless verbal “crossfire” used by modern media pundits who make their living by confusing or enraging their audiences. This kind of punditry mocks the saying: “I think, therefore I am,” and morphs into: “I think, therefore I am a celebrity, and you must listen to me.”

However, thought without the ability to decide and to act is empty, and some suggest dysfunctional – even pathological. Psychologist and novelist Irvin D. Yalom (Existentialism and Psychotherapy) asserts that the ability to “respond” is critical to an intentional life, an aware life. In fact, he describes “responsibility” as “response + ability” – the first step in “the passage from awareness to action.”

Critical thinking should lead us to say, “I think, and I can respond.” This symbiotic relationship between thinking and purpose is manifested in the Educational Purpose Statement of Loyola University: “In the Ignatian tradition, Loyola University endeavors to develop students into a new generation of leaders who possess a love for truth, the critical intelligence to pursue it, and the eloquence to articulate it. The goal of a Loyola education is not mere technical competence but wisdom and social responsibility.”

This year has not been easy for any of us: elections, debates, disappointments, tsunamis, genocides, war, poverty, conflicts, personal disappointments and tragedies.

Let’s begin to find new ways to define ourselves and our times – not by labels, but by our dreams, values and actions.

When summer 2005 begins, we will travel to summer jobs, to summer vacations, to summer schools, to new careers or simply home.

Let’s open our thoughts and ourselves to the world around us. Here are a few ideas:

1. Go back and read for fun what you had to read for class. This time read without worrying about a quiz or paper – read just because you can enjoy the journey on your own.

2. Stay awake. Look beyond the ordinary, beyond what is presented to you in papers or on TV.

3. Reflect. Close your eyes at least once a day and become aware of the world and the people around you. Who lives in your neighborhood? Whose silence do you hear? Who do you wish could hear yours? Listen and speak.

4. Discover. Do something new, something you’ve never tried to do, something you have never thought you could do. Failing or succeeding is not important. You are living, and you are building your own life now.

5. Respond. Respond. Respond. Save a mountaintop in Tennessee, bring lunch to an elderly person, play with children in the summer heat, find a place or person who needs your help and say yes.

Hug people when they least expect it and when they need it the most.

6. Embrace the realities of others. Listen to their reflections and dreams. Respond to them. Act because you can, not because you should. Feel good not because you are saving others, but because you are saving yourself.

7. Hum, sing, draw, color outside the lines, swim past the buoys and DRUM.

Paulette Swartzfager is an instructor of English.