"I got in!" shot through my brain and threatened to burst out and interrupt the caller's good news. The caller was Bill Stephany who, along with Ron Herzman co-directs the National Endowment for the Humanities Dante Seminar. I had learned about the seminar in the late fall and, through the bleakest chill of February, had worked on putting into words why I wanted to participate. The task was a good challenge in editing. See for yourself the description of the seminar that hooked me: NEH Dante Seminar
Why do I want to be part of this seminar? For six weeks, 16 participants will read the Commedia in its entirety. Six weeks to luxuriate in one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry ever written, with some of the most well known scholars in the field AND experts in art, architecture, literature, and even mathematics. And all of this takes place in Dante's own backyard-Tuscany, Italy! How could I distill the passionate swirl of ideas and images in my head into a good answer to this question?
In my blog, I hope to be able to get down in words this experience of a lifetime. I want also to reflect on the journeys that brought me here.
And so I prepare to write. Writing is an oddly terrifying activity for me-though it is one that I have done since I was a child. My father gave me my first journal when I was eight years old and I followed his example of writing down daily thoughts and happenings. Journals help me remember. I hope this blog will help me organize my thoughts. Most of all, I want to use the blog so as not to lose or tangle any of the threads spun out at me during this oh-so-precious experience.
The title of my blog comes from the quote above. Dante's ancestor, Cacciaguida, foretells Dante's bitter political exile from his beloved Florence. The bread of other's is salted by one's homesick tears. (Tuscan bread is also made without salt). Exile clearly tempered Dante's words and perspective and it is one of the themes that most resonates with me. It will be the subject of future posts if I can summon the words.
Both the blog and the seminar will be immensely challenging. So I will close this first post with a supplication to Dante-using his same plea to Virgil in Canto II of Inferno. "Poet who are my guide, consider my strength, if it is powerful enough, before you entrust me to the deep pass." And may I be found powerful enough!
Note: English translations will be from Robert M. Durling, with the exception of the title quote from Singleton.
