Zach Treanor

Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you didn’t use them. At some point you have to recognize what world it is that you belong to, what power rules it and from what source you spring, that there is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.  This passage from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations resonates deeply with the crossroads.  Significant creative output—400+ instrumentals, multiple YouTube channels, a solid grip on sound design, and educational content. You’ve put in the hours. Yet you’re still working part-time at a bank, splitting your identity between two worlds: the creative world where you thrive, and the financial stability of a more conventional job. You’ve considered graduate school as a way to bridge into full-time music work—seeking structure, credentialing, or momentum that could give you permission to fully commit. Marcus’s words h...

Written in my theology course at Saint Mary's College.             Martin Luther King Jr on August 27 th 1967 made a speech that reflected the system of white supremacy and inequality in the United States. He’s speech was truthful, just and righteous. Rich men forget how they became rich. Martin Luther King realizes three distinct factors in the parable from the gospel of Luke. The foolish man doesn’t realize with his surplus of crops he could give back to the individuals he depended on. Jesus calls this man a fool because he doesn’t realize he has depended on God or the opportunity God has given him to have such a rich supply of crops. King references that the foolish man thinks “he is the creator of the seasons.” The foolish man thinks he holds high status to God because he holds many goods; but in reality he is foolish and selfish in letting people suffer to better himself. He therefore and lastly, thinks the “physical stuff” define he’s value...

Written in January 2015.            My journey and experience was different then I expected. I always had a curiosity about the graffiti wall. And when I found it I was shocked and in awe in what was in front me. When I arrived, I realized the wall was just far enough to feel isolated. All I could hear was the running stream and the birds chirping all around me. I was above the wall and I was trying to map myself a way down the hill. The rain made it incredibly muddy so when I started my way down the hill, I immediately slipped and fell. I continued forward but this time more slowly. Each focused step I took, I slowly placed on the ground. Eventually I reached the bottom and decided to sit on the green couch in front of the wall. The artistic spray paintings were amazing. The word “jags” were spray painted around the whole area and it was also written in the left corner of the wall. Before arriving to the wall I remembered seeing a spray painted vers...

The NCAA is a corporation that controls the benefits student-athletes receive from their institution. Over 460,000 student-athletes are under this system in the United States. Critical scholars would ask: how has the authority of the NCAA disallowed student-athletes the inability to receive money for such an immense period of time? What group is benefited from the NCAA? How has the NCAA become a monopsony power and been able to deconstruct the power of the student-athlete?   Horkheimer’s article, “Reason Against itself”, states and analyzes how the critical theory works in the function of an independent producer: “The so-called transcendental factors which constitute the ego: memory and foresight, conceptual thinking, the integration of all experiences into one identical conscience knowing itself as the same in past and future, all these elements were tremendously enhanced by the economic situation of the independent producer and businessman.” (Horkheimer 85). Horkheimer, using c...

 Protestantism was exposed to the dangers, threats, and problems that had led to the emergence of the monastic movement. Yet there was an affirmative attitude to change the system of the Church. On the Imitation of Christ and Contempt for the World , was a positive response to Jesus Christ and simply motivated citizens to pursue staying connected with the Church. Yet the Reformation grew rapidly and the formative centers of Christian thought and life shifted from the monasteries to the marketplaces. Cities became centers of thought and reformation. There was a new emphasis on the doctrines of creation and redemption. To be a Christian does not mean renouncing the world. The Christian is called to work in the world in order to redeem the world. This is done because the world is falling; but it is not evil. Giving yourself to the world was in the aspect of working out of the Christian doctrine of redemption. Failing to do work in the world, results in not being redeemed.   B...