I’ve taken another of The Great Courses. The premise is that the Middle Ages weren’t stagnant but had great technological advancements. This course is a thousand times better than History of Engineering a required course for my mechanical engineering degree. The primary reason is that Dr. Ressler has working models to demonstrate everything. Although I graduated with enough science to help design the Space Shuttle, I still didn’t know how many machines worked. In addition, the thorough course is entertaining because he puts developments into surprising historical contexts.
The biggest surprise was Dr. Ressler describing Cistercian monasteries as centers of technology development. According to the Rule of St. Benedict monasteries should be self-sufficient. But monks had many demands on their time including meeting for prayer and worship eight times daily. Therefore the monks became great innovators in human-labor saving technology such as indoor plumbing.
I meet a lot of older people who appear to be stagnant in personal development. This is counter to what aging experts recommend. I’m grateful for a nerdy sense of curiosity that makes learning things I don’t NEED to know enjoyable. Nerdy in my case makes life fun and more-than-ordinary.
Drew
More Than Ordinary Lives 
Hi Drew
Not sure I’d call your interest in history and nature “nerdy”. How fascinating about the monks. I often wonder how much we lose because we don’t need to challenge ourselves with practical needs (at least in the western world) and are so less hands on in average modern-day living. (Although it wouldn’t look pretty if I’d had to come up with indoor plumbing in our house!) Very interesting post! 😊
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Thanks, Angie !
I think one reason we have so many problems in America.is that most people look for sources to confirm what they want to believe. In the case of Christians, they look for biblical interpretations that support what they want to believe. The concept of looking at documented evidence threatens both Christians and non-Christians. I sometimes ask, “When was the last time you changed your mind about something?” Then I follow up with, “That’s when you stopped growing.” Perhaps you’ve seen some of my blogs on AI. In many cases, AI is a great bias reinforcer.
In Out Lord,
Drew
More Than Ordinary Lives Website https://morethanordinarylives.com
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Ever the encourager and a thinker too I might add. Not sure I would want to creare our own indoor plumbing either. 🤣❤
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