61. An Interpolated Episode: Too Many Footnotes and Not Enough Time to Reflect
Over a century ago, an Italian critic leveled a charge at people like me—and maybe you, too. People like us, he claimed, have killed Dante’s COMEDY with an overabundance of footnotes.
Since Virgil has stopped our pilgrim on the descent and offered a map of the road ahead, I thought it was important for us to stop and look at the road behind us—to answer this critic’s charge and to see this magnificent poem, not a series of interpretive knots, but as (already at this point) an achievement without parallel.
Sure, there’s lots ahead. I’m still going to paper the thing with footnotes. But join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take a pause and reflect on the sheer artistry of what we’ve already seen, not in the specifics, but in its grand arc, like a firmament above us.
There is no passage from COMEDY for this episode.
There is no passage from COMEDY for this episode and it doesn’t easily break into segments.
Three personal questions:
Think about the journey of your own life . . . specifically about the artistry in the journey of your life. Not that you’re necessarily an artist, a musician, a writer. But the artistry in the way you’ve put together your life: how you’ve created opportunities, how you’ve put meaning into events, how you’ve created who you are.
We all work in small plots. What does yours look like? Where are your fences?
How can you add something of the contemplative life to your own life? Some people meditate, do yoga, take long walks. Is there a way you can carve out a brief bit of your day to sit quietly and . . . think? reflect? breathe? Ultimately, Dante will claim that the contemplative life is the highest calling. Maybe you could make a little space in your own life for a brief moment of it.