felix hominum

Big Valley wheat pool

Dante's Purgatory, XVIII: "As much as reason sees"

Dante packs a lot into this Canto.  We are going to have to attack this rather like I attack a buffet:  go for what is familiar first, and then fill up the edges with the other stuff.  Virgil is attempting to explain to Dante the nature of love.  Think love with a capital L, and not in the Hollywood sense.  This is love in its biggest sense, as the force which keeps the universe going.  This is love as an inward movement of the soul.  Love is something like gravity - it is the thing which (as the 60's song says) "makes the world go 'round". 

So here we are, beings who are created to love.  We begin by desiring things which please us.  This is the first stirring of love.  Since we are created in order to love, how can we then be blamed for loving wrongly?  And how is loving "wrongly" even possible?  As Dante puts it to Virgil:  "how can you praise or blame it for its love of good or bad?"  In other words, isn't there a kind of determinism about the whole thing?  How can there be ethical judgment about love?  Virgil begins his reply:

I can explain to you
as much as reason sees; for the rest, wait
for Beatrice - it is the work of faith.
Purgatory XVIII. 46

Here again Virgil recognizes the limits of human reason in understanding these things.  For love is not a human construct;  it is divine.  it is both an attribute of and a gift from, God.  Even, we might say with the author of John's letter, it is the nature of God himself.  So neither you nor I will understand the true nature of love without Beatrice - without the divine aid of faith.

While reason has its limits, it also has its role in directing our natural inclinations, our natural "loves".  We need not consent to every inclination which arises within us.  And it is the faculty of reason which is charged with this task, transforming natural inclinations into 'rational' love.

you have the innate faculty of reason,
which should defend the threshold of consent...

Let us assume that every love that burns
in you arises through necessity:
you still have the power to restrain such love.
Purgatory XVIII. 63 ff

Here I think we need to turn to another poet - John Donne - who articulates something of the same sentiment in Holy Sonnet XIV. Look it up and read it through a few times.  Seriously.

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Here Virgil tells Dante that reason, exercising its ability to restrain and direct our desires, finds its expression as the "noble power Beatrice knows as Freedom of the Will" (73).  And in fact the whole of purgatory is about reclaiming the freedom of will which was lost through sin.

Dante's Purgatory: Canto XVIII: What is Love? (part 2)

Some years ago I was hiking with a group of students in Mount Robson Park.  As fate would have it, there had been a flash flood the previous evening.  The natural consequence of such an event is, of course, that the bridge over which I had hoped to cross was completely washed out.

One of the rules I follow in the mountain backcountry is akin to that of Sam Gamgee - rope.  Never travel without rope.  It is not only useful for vertical movement, but for horizontal as well.  It is much easier to ford a mountain river with rope than without.  Trust me on this.  Or if not, try it both ways and then let me know the outcome.

At any rate, this is where we are today.  There is no easy bridge at this point in the poem.  The questions don't get any deeper than this:  what is love?  If I manage to get across this particular section without being swept away, it is only because others will keep me grounded and anchored.  There are points in this section where I have to admit that any answer I give, or any attempt at interpretation will be completely inadequate.  Nontheless, onward ho!

It should be clear to you by now how blind
to truth those people are who make the claims
that every love is, in itself, good love.

They think this, for love's substance, probably,
seems always good, but thought wax is good
the impression made upon it may be bad.

Purgatory XVIII 33ff

We are created to love, and love appears to be a force which is unavoidable.  We have attractions and desires upon which we act.  So how can it be that love can be either good or bad, Dante asks Virgil.  Love is not, in Virgil's explanation, something which we as human beings create out of ourselves, it is (as we will see later in Paradise) the very thing which allows the entire universe to exist.  The soul is created to move toward that which pleases it (20 ff.).  It is completely "natural" in one sense of the word.  So how can any "love", any genuine movement of the soul toward that which it loves, be the subject of ethical judgement?  Can love be either good or bad?  Dante addresses Virgil:

if love comes from a source outside of us,
the soul having no choice, how can you praise
or blame it for its love of good or bad?

Purgatory XVIII 43ff

I'll see if I can find the answer after lunch, and before tonight's study group...

 

 

 

what a sheet music should look like after an hour of practice

Autumn Leaves, the "annotated" version...

HUSA - our latest support project

We were grateful to have Sarah Pollock join us last Sunday to talk about her work with HUSA, a grassroots organization which does great work in Tanzania.  Sarah is a nursing student at the U of A who caught a vision and is making it happen.  Here are some snippets from HUSA's hompage:

Currently HUSA Center for Children is caring for 49 children between the ages of 3-16 years. Thanks to our gracious supporters, the children are recieving 3 meals a day, have a rented shelter and are all attending primary school, vocational training or tutoring sessions.
Although great achievements have been made with the center, more is needed. The current rented house is in need of repairs and is not large enough to accomadate beds for all the children. By 2012, it is our goal to have built a new home with a small farm to help sustain the center finacially. To see our goals and plans click here. 

Vision:
To become a reputable Community Based Organization (CBO) that is
responsive to providing care and support to children and youth orphaned
by HIV/AIDS in the Kimamba, Kilosa region of Tanzania.
 
Mission:
To provide quality care and support to orphans in Kimamba. 
 
Objectives:
1.        Provide prompt and quality assistance to orphaned children in Kimamba.
2.        Stabilize the children’s psychological and social well being.
3.        To raise awareness and decrease stigma towards HIV/AIDS within Kimamba, by providing            education and participating in community awareness groups.
4.        Reach the children before the parents die to plan for the child’s future.
5.        Support each HUSA child through their school education.

 

Buying a Jeep in Edmonton: Part 3

Scene 3, Act 2:

sales rep backs out of office, clutching papers with numbers all over them. 

"I'll be right back.  I'll have to talk to the manager.  You know we are going to lose money on this deal."

rep goes into another part of building.  customer cannot overhear conversation, which actually goes as follows:

"Hi Bob.  What did you think of the Oilers game last night?"
"Not much, I thought they could have put more effort into clearing the puck from their zone.  But overall they have been off to a good start, so we'll see how the season goes."
"By the way, do you have any of those little Bic pens with our logo on it?  I think if I give this guy a new pen he will sign the deal in a few minutes. I'll let him sit for a bit longer.   Hey, great haircut!"
"Thanks Bill.  Now go soak him.  Tell him we sold 6 of these units just yesterday, and if he doesn't get it today, he'll regret it forever."

rep returns to customer

"This is the lowest I can go without getting fired.  You know what bosses are like.  He's mad that I even offered it to you at this price.  How would you like a new Bic pen - all fancy with our logo on it?  I'm telling you, if you get it today at this price, not only will your kids do better in school, but your wife will find you irresistable for the remainder of the powertrain warranty, which is a full 5 years."

 

Okay, so maybe it's not really that bad.  Then again, maybe sometimes it is.  Just to continue the update for all those who are curious, the final cut narrowed it down to 3 places:  Derrick Dodge/Jeep (where I previously bought a Cherokee Classic 4x4), Capital Dodge/Jeep (where our present minivan came from) and Sherwood Park Dodge/Jeep. 

Up next:  the dotted line.

 

 

William Watson Lodge, GRIT & dads of kids with disabilities

I recently spoke to the AGM of an organization which delivers educational and development services to children with disabilities.  The organization is locally known as GRIT - Getting Ready for Inclusion Today.  They are self described as "an exemplary, fully-inclusive, non-profit early childhood program for children with disabilities 2 ½ – 5 ½ years of age."   While I tend to do a lot of public speaking (it comes with the territory in my line of work), it took me quite a while to figure out and put on paper exactly what I wanted to say.

I have read a fair bit of the literature on the topic of family dynamics situations where one or more of child has some form of disability.  But this was more about my own personal experience, as a father who happens to have a child who lives with a disability.  I'll not reprint here everything I said there, but I do want to highlight a few anecdotal items which I believe are important.  These are the sorts of things one hears after the formal address is finished, over coffee, with other parents who are simply looking for a place to tell their story.

None of this is absolute, it is merely a pencil sketch of a few conversations, so let that guide your interpretation.  First come the logistics.  And by this I mean the countless extra trips to doctors, specialists, therapists, assessors, psychologists - you name it, and chances are your kid has had more appointments in a few short months than you have had in your whole life.  Many times it is (in a 2 parent family) the mom who does this.  And many times it is the dad who catches up afterward.  He was at work perhaps, and simply cannot find a way to be there for these events.  This has led in some instances to dad feeling disconnected, playing "catch up".  From the perspective of the mom, it is doubly exhausting to have to retell the entire experience a second time.  She has already heard once that Jane or John has this or that wrong, that nothing can be done for X, that her child will need extra work here or there.  Many two parent families I spoke to that evening found this to be the case.  Sometimes the dad will feel disconnected from what is happening and try to get more involved, more supportive.  But sometimes the feeling of disconnect will result in a feeling of helplessness, and perhaps even further alienation from their child's life.  This is only one small topic among many:  how do fathers get more involved, more informed and more supportive?  And most important of all, is there a place for them to simply tell their story. 

I'll give the rest of talk & some of the feedback in bits and pieces over the next little while.  A few days after I spoke at the AGM, we had a chance to spend a few days as a family at William Watson Lodge.  It is a facility developed specifically to provide outdoor recreation for persons with disabilities and their families. It is set in a fabulous location:  on the shores of Lower Kananaskis Lake in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta.  Our second daughter lives with Down Syndrome, and so we "qualified" as a family to stay at the facility.  For people with mobility challenges, there are some wonderfull accessible trails with amazing views of the Rockies.  It really is a great place to spend a few days.  We are hoping to get back there again next spring, or even during the winter for some X-country skiing & fireside laziness.