Oh How Time Drags And Hangs 'Til Our Aid Comes!

Reading Dante's Inferno at the moment. It's very intense. Lots of classic literature is difficult to read; particularly long books in poetic form, but Dante's subject matter makes for pretty page-turning stuff, even if only because it inspires a sort of morbid fascination. Take this punishment for example: it describes the fate of those who did neither good nor bad in life and never took sides,

'I saw a banner there upon the mist.
Circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all pause.
So it ran on, and still behind it pressed

a never-ending rout of souls in pain.
I had not thought death had undone so many
as passed before me in that mournful train...

These wretches never born and never dead
ran naked in a swarm of wasps and hornets
that goaded them the more they fled

and made their faces stream with bloody gouts
of pus and tears that dribbled to their feet
to be swallowed there by loathsome worms and maggots.'

And we're only in the vestibule of Hades - not even inside Hell proper yet!

Very intense. And very fascinating. All the 'punishments fit the crimes' in very brutal and imaginative ways. *Shudder*

I don't know if I like Dante's treatment of Hell in some ways - he pities some sinners and not others and gets encouraged by his guide (the poet Virgil) to verbally abuse other sufferers. But the medieval Catholic mythology fascinates the heck out of me all the same. People who were that intense about their religion that they spent their time theorising about random aspects of the unknowable mystery of the spiritual world. Crazy.




I love this vid of Charlie's; it's basically everything I always thought about relationships but always got laughed at for saying. Besides the awesome household object orchestra. :)



I believe in a Father God Who feels the pain of His children.

I believe in a new Heaven and a new Earth.

I believe in hope.

I believe in compassion.

I believe in God's ability to use even the horrible stuff for His purpose.

I believe in the potential of every human being for good or evil.

Yesterday in class, we were discussing Dante's Inferno and the different circles of Hell. As the teacher discussed vanity and pride, I saw the girl in front of me using her webcam to fix her hair and makeup. MLIA.

Today, I noticed the tag on my favorite t shirt. It read 'These t shirts were tested on animals. They didn't fit.' MLIA