Alfred Lent doesn’t have much trouble choosing what to wear in the morning: He picks out one of his white, button-down shirts — typically Faded Glory — out of his collection of about 20.
It started as sort of a rebellion against shopping, complicated laundry and deciding what to wear, but it also came to encapsulate the kind of person he is: someone who desires simplicity and predictability.
“It wound up being something that simplified my life — made it better,” the assistant professor of philosophy at Ohio University, said. “I never have to wonder what I’m going to wear. It’s all the same.”
Lent started teaching philosophy at OU about 14 years ago. Since taking the position, he has lived in Athens during the week, and in Dublin, Ohio, on the weekends, where his wife, Christine still lives.
He was only dating Christine for a month before they got engaged in 1980.
Growing up in Long Island, New York, Lent’s first hopeful career path was playing piano and the guitar at local bars. He also worked at a sporting goods store called Suburban Sports. It was there that he met Christine, who had just been in a car accident that placed her in a wheelchair then to crutches.
At a surprise party for Lent’s 21st birthday in 1980, — which, unbeknownst to Lent, was planned to be held at his house — he took her upstairs to show off the new Yamaha piano he had just purchased. Going upstairs was difficult because Christine was still in crutches from the accident — who still has to use crutches today. They stayed in the room until 3 a.m., and were engaged three weeks later.
Before dating Christine, however, Lent had previously started studying audio engineering in college — an endeavor that only lasted two months.
He walked out in the middle of his introduction to broadcast telecommunications class when the professor required each student to practice how to turn on a camera.
It was during this time off from schooling that Lent developed his interest in philosophy.
By reading books by authors such as the Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer, he began to ponder what he called “existence of life” questions that he did not realize had a developed school of thought behind them.
At 28 years old, Lent decided to go back to college. He started studying philosophy at Liberty University in 1987, but tried to hide it from Christine. She said her particular denomination of Christianity at the time wasn’t open to philosophy, and felt it was “dangerous.” In addition, she had taken a philosophy class herself and “absolutely hated it.”
Nevertheless, Lent continued to pursue his interest in philosophy. It was easy to hide when he was taking general education classes because he didn’t have to declare a major, he said.
Soon enough, his grades came in the mail with a philosophy class listed, which was how the news was broken to Christine.
“She was pissed. ... We’re talking (for) years,” Lent said. “We split up, we got separated, we had problems and we had to work them out.”
Over time, Christine became more open to Lent’s pursuit.
“As I’ve learned what Al wants — what he desires to do with philosophy, what his goals are as a professor — I really have grown to not just understand it, but to really enjoy talking about philosophy with him and hearing what he’s doing,” she said.
As a graduate student at Ohio State University, Lent taught classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design, Wittenberg University, Capital University and other universities, before he eventually came to take a position at OU, where he now teaches introductory courses to logic and ethics. His salary for the 2015-16 academic year is $51,848, according to a public records request.
To some students, he is their first introduction to philosophic thought — a responsibility he takes seriously. He recalls a philosophy professor he had that would shut down students whom he disagreed with, instead of cultivating a debate.
“It’s wrong to take cheap shots when it’s your job to teach, instruct them on what all the good shots are,” Lent said. “That’s what I try to do.”
Lent said he tries to keep his personal beliefs out of his lectures, and instead focuses on teaching his students how to form rational arguments, regardless of what that argument may be.
But outside of class, he’ll freely share his views. He believes in a god. He believes marijuana should be legalized, and lived through its decriminalization in New York in the ’70s. It was a period he described in which restrictions were so lax he remembers smoking with police officers and inside movie theaters.
“Get me outside of class and I’ll tell what I believe, and I’ll tell you why,” he said. “And I’ll kick your ass if you have a lousy argument. I’ll do it nicely. I’m a nice guy.”
Ryan O’Loughlin, Lent’s teaching assistant and a graduate student studying philosophy, said Lent makes an effort of making the class enjoyable as well as informative, playing the ’60s psychedelic rock song “Cellophane Symphony” by Tommy James and the Shondells before almost every class.
“He does a really good job entertaining people while teaching,” O’Loughlin said. “He starts off the class telling jokes and trying to lighten the mood because no one really wants to be there on the first day of class.”
Hayley Hammerstrom, a freshman studying journalism and psychology and is in Lent’s introduction to logic class, said he is usually keen on when students don’t understand a certain topic, and slows down to make sure they can get caught up.
“He’s kind of a hippy,” Hammerstrom said. “But he’s, like, smarter than everyone else in the room.”
Not everyone shares Lent’s passions for philosophy. It has the reputation of being all talk and no action — discussing questions that can’t be answered, like “Is there a god?” or “Does life have meaning?” Lent, however, feels the need to engage in such discussions.
“You’re really not intelligently, educatedly agnostic until you know what all the options are,” he said.
In 2011, Christine was diagnosed with breast cancer — something that hit Lent particularly hard because he still had to leave for Athens every week. But, when he was home, he drove her to her appointments and he stayed with her so she wouldn’t have to go through the process alone. He helps her with daily tasks made more difficult by her mobility issues — usually before she even has to ask.
“It’s the most amazing feeling to be cared for like that,” Christine said.
However, the distance still strains their relationship.
“After doing this for 13 years, it’s starting to get old,” Christine said. She plans on moving to Athens in the fall, where the two of them will purchase a house.
Lent, who by the nature of his profession questions and analyzes most beliefs, is not concerned about the nitpicky details about love — like if there is anything more than a blend of chemical reactions in one’s brain. Comparing and understanding the mechanisms of love to observing the sheet music of a Beethoven symphony, Lent said he is still in awe.
“It’s so marvelous when you watch (the symphony),” Lent said. “It’s mysterious — it unmasks the mystery, but it’s no less wondrous once we know what it is.”
@seanthomaswolfe
