Tuesday, October 31, 2006
It's really happening
Salvete Omnes!! Here is the first entry in the chronicle of my crazy trip to Italy. If you are new to the saga, I am going to a small town just south of Naples called Montella to live in a bording school type thing and learn to speak Latin. It's sort of like a humanist monastary. Moree details are forthcoming...
It's really happening: the tickets are bought, the visa is (almost) approved and my dreams are weirdening. There's still much to be done before I go mainly being grad school apps for next year and reading through the two volume Latin text book series Lingua Latina by Hans Orberg. I am fairly convinced that this is the best approach to Latin pedagogy, but I'll talk more about that throughout the year. Thanks to all who planned and came to my going away party. Although it was slightly weird to be the center of attention (I should qualify. I'm often the center of attention, that's not weird at all, it's just the formalization of that attention which is somewhat weird), it was wonderful that so many friends showed up. Pictures will soon be posted on my flickr page.
Here is the famous inscription over the oracle at Delphi (Latinized of course). The original is γνώθι σεαυτόν which means "Know Thyself!" So did this guy know himself or not? Maybe it's saying that if we know ourselves, we'll understand that life is fleeting and death is the ultimate reality for everyone. Or perhaps it's saying if you don't know yourself, you'll end up like this guy.The oracle plays an important role in many ancient Greek stories and working the incription into one's interpretation always yields fruitful layers of meaning, e.g. Oedipus and Croesus. I agree with John Calvin who begins his institutes by saying that a person needs to know himself to know God and needs to know God to know himself.
Valete! Iam enim tempus est dormire. Yes there will be Latin peppered throughout this blog. Feel free to ask me what it means and I'll be happy to translate.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Flickr Test Photo
This here picture being from my DDR party last spring is worthy to test photoblogging from Flickr. Flickr, by the way, is the best photo sharing site out there and is, incidentally, probably the only site which prevents my web identity from being completely googlized.