Joseph > Recent Status Updates

Should finish the reread tomorrow.

Man's mind, I know, cannot win through the mist/ unless it is illumined by that Truth/ beyond which truth has nowhere to exist.

Dante's indictment of the corruption of the church in his day.

Ben-Hur turns out to be second edition, though the initial publication was in November 1880 and this one came out the same year so it's still survived 135 years in amazing shape.

So we were cleaning out the barns on the farm before they get torn down, and we found a steamer trunk. Inside was my great great grandmother's bible, printed in 1872, and a first edition Ben-Hur.

Every year I tell myself I'm going to read Statius and I never do. Come on Goodreads, help me remember!

The Angel who came down from God to man/ with the decree of peace the centuries wept for,/ which opened Heaven, ending the long ban,/ stood carved before us with such force and love,/ with such a living grace in his whole pose,/ the image seemed about to speak and move./ One could have sworn an Ave! sounded clear,/ for she who turned the key that opened to us the Perfect Love, was also figured there...

Paper is done so now I can get back to Dante.

Distance between cultures. Also, the Chinese students really liked baseball.

For better waters now the little bark/ of my indwelling powers raises her sails,/ and leaves behind that sea so cruel and dark./ Now shall I sing that second kingdom given/ the soul of man wherein to purge its guilt/ and so grow worthy to ascend to Heaven.

On to Purgatorio

Chinese students taking the Transcontinental Railroad to New England in 1872

All this reading I've been doing on Chinese history just makes me wanna play 象棋 or mah jong.

And the traitors of the world are subjected to eternal frost bite.

Also reading for research, but since this, so far focuses on the life of one man I think the whole thing falls within my topic.