Hitting close to home

The state of the nation in the last few years is making me think more and more of Dante's Divine Comedy. This would be fine if it reminded me of the parts about Purgatory and Paradise, but I'm kinda stuck on Inferno now. 

The very first line of the very first canto pretty well sums up the state of the nation, as spoken in the first person: "In the middle of the journey of our lives I awoke to find myself in a dark wood, having lost the true path."

Ouch.

As the Poet/Pilgrim tries to push through the brambles he is threatened by three predatory beasts: a she-wolf, a leopard and a lion. Rivers of ink have been spilled over what these symbolize, but the most convincing explanation to me mirrors the classification of sins and punishments in hell.

The upper level of hell is for the greed (he used the term "incontinence," but that has other connotations these days), represented by the she-wolf. Then comes the level of the violence, represented by the lion. The lowest level is that of fraud and deceptions, which leaves the leopard.

Lost in the woods and threatened by greed, violence and lies...that sounds about right. In the poem, he has to literally go through hell to get out of it....hmmm.

Dante is aided by two guides at different parts of the journey. His guide through hell and lower purgatory was Virgil, who arguably represents natural human wisdom and effort, which will only go so far. To make it to paradise, he needs the assistance of Beatrice, who represents divine grace and mercy.

We could use both right about now.

Independence Day

AMERICA

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear'd, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair'd in the adamant of Time.

--Walt Whitman

Happy 4th of July!

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: UP THERE WITH THE FIREWORKS

INDEPENDENCE DAY

And who better to wish us a better future than Walt Whitman, poet of democracy:


ONE song, America, before I go,
I’d sing, o’er all the rest, with trumpet sound,
For thee—the Future.

I’d sow a seed for thee of endless Nationality;
I’d fashion thy Ensemble, including Body and Soul;
I’d show, away ahead, thy real Union, and how it may be accomplish’d.

(The paths to the House I seek to make,
But leave to those to come, the House itself.)

Belief I sing—and Preparation;
As Life and Nature are not great with reference to the Present only,
But greater still from what is yet to come,
Out of that formula for Thee I sing.