I’ve been a busy boy, as usual. Those who told me that the sophomore year was more relaxed than the others were lying, or else sleeping during their respective sophomore years. There are no breaks in the readings. They’re all long. They’re all intense. They all have humongous implications and readily comprehensible life applications. Now I’m about to start my Epictetus reading from his Discourses and the Handbook. I’m told that he’s a stoic writer, and I only partially know what that means. I suppose I know what a stoic looks like but not necessarily what a stoic believes. Our reading early from Plutarch concerning Cato (the younger) gave us a taste of what we’re about to plunge ourselves in to. Anyway, this is all chitchat in comparison with what I intended initially to write.
I’m leaning heavily toward a sophomore essay topic coming from Virgil’s Aeneid! My most previous post has an essay I wrote for my language tutorial attached to it, and this essay is the springboard for my thoughts on the Aeneid. (I also apologize for not warning y’all that the posted essay mentioned will not make too much sense to anyone who has not recently read the Aeneid; I took many liberties to cut it down to five pages, knowing that Mr. Tomarchio has a great appreciation for the epic and does not need much background information with my commentaries.) In the essay I put forth the idea that Virgil tells us of a progression in his main character: that Aeneas is at first obligated both toward his father and his son, but to accomplish his destiny as the father of the Roman people, he must be motivated by a vision of glory for his son and the generations to follow. It occurred to me toward the end of my paper that there was a parallel with Abraham, who was asked to leave his family and pursue God’s promise of something that would never be realized in his lifetime, though the promise itself was very real. Abraham must think with a trans-generational hope, like Aeneas. This is a fascinating topic, I think. For my sophomore essay I think I would actually like to avoid the explicit comparison between Abraham and Aeneas, while keeping it “in the back of my mind.” In addition to what I’ve already written, I’m captivated by something I tried to avoid throughout that last paper: Aeneas’s relationship to women, and how Virgil depicts their role in the foundation of the Roman land and people. Homer’s woman-characters, Andromache and Helen and Penelope being foremost among them (not to mention the female gods), seem to have a very different role in his epics than Creüsa and Dido and Lavinia have in the Aeneid. Dido is one of the most potent characters in the entire story, I would argue. I wonder how Aeneas’s various relationships with his Trojan wife Creüsa, his Carthaginian girlfriend (pseudo-wife) Dido, and his Roman wife Lavinia shed light on the role of women in Rome’s beginnings and future. There is progression here in a similar way as there is progression in his relationship with his father and son. My last paper was about Aeneas as a father and son, but I think Aeneas as a father and husband and son may be an examination more revealing of his character and some message Virgil is announcing to the Roman people. Etc.
I’m excited for now. We’ll see if I hold on to that topic when the New Testament seminars roll around starting on Thursday.
On another note, I’ve decided to stay in Annapolis for my Thanksgiving break. I told my manager at the coffee shop that I’d like to work everyday if possible to cover the shifts of the people taking vacation during that time. Hopefully I’ll make enough money to largely supplement my traveling costs over Christmas break. I hope to go home for a solid two weeks or more and also to spend a week with Andrew and Licia in Pennsylvania. I haven’t come to a conclusion about when I will visit them, but I will probably only be buying one plane ticket for either the beginning or end of my visit in New York. Not buying a round-trip ticket for Thanksgiving is saving me a load of cash.
On the note of money, God has so tremendously blessed me. As usual, I’m having trouble giving an account for the amount of money that I have saved. I’m utterly convinced that I need not worry about tomorrow if I keep my eyes on the kingdom, and I’m also convinced that I only ever have as much as I’m able to give.
I love y’all. I need to do some reading and translation work. We’re working on one of Creon’s speeches in Antigone now. I think we have a few more weeks of it until we move on to English writers. We’ll be studying rhetoric, poetic meters, and some other things later in this year. Rhetoric is much more interesting than I thought it would be. I learned nothing formally about rhetoric in high school (not even what the word means, making it impossible for me to recognize that I was actually learning some of it, especially from my Latin class). Plato paints such a bad picture of the sophists and attacks rhetoricians along with them (ref. Gorgias), so last year I was under the impression that it was the “black sheep” of the liberal arts, but not so now. I’m excited.
If you think of it, pray for me according to Ephesians 1:15-23, which (NASB) reads,
Right, back to my work. I love y’all, again.
I’m leaning heavily toward a sophomore essay topic coming from Virgil’s Aeneid! My most previous post has an essay I wrote for my language tutorial attached to it, and this essay is the springboard for my thoughts on the Aeneid. (I also apologize for not warning y’all that the posted essay mentioned will not make too much sense to anyone who has not recently read the Aeneid; I took many liberties to cut it down to five pages, knowing that Mr. Tomarchio has a great appreciation for the epic and does not need much background information with my commentaries.) In the essay I put forth the idea that Virgil tells us of a progression in his main character: that Aeneas is at first obligated both toward his father and his son, but to accomplish his destiny as the father of the Roman people, he must be motivated by a vision of glory for his son and the generations to follow. It occurred to me toward the end of my paper that there was a parallel with Abraham, who was asked to leave his family and pursue God’s promise of something that would never be realized in his lifetime, though the promise itself was very real. Abraham must think with a trans-generational hope, like Aeneas. This is a fascinating topic, I think. For my sophomore essay I think I would actually like to avoid the explicit comparison between Abraham and Aeneas, while keeping it “in the back of my mind.” In addition to what I’ve already written, I’m captivated by something I tried to avoid throughout that last paper: Aeneas’s relationship to women, and how Virgil depicts their role in the foundation of the Roman land and people. Homer’s woman-characters, Andromache and Helen and Penelope being foremost among them (not to mention the female gods), seem to have a very different role in his epics than Creüsa and Dido and Lavinia have in the Aeneid. Dido is one of the most potent characters in the entire story, I would argue. I wonder how Aeneas’s various relationships with his Trojan wife Creüsa, his Carthaginian girlfriend (pseudo-wife) Dido, and his Roman wife Lavinia shed light on the role of women in Rome’s beginnings and future. There is progression here in a similar way as there is progression in his relationship with his father and son. My last paper was about Aeneas as a father and son, but I think Aeneas as a father and husband and son may be an examination more revealing of his character and some message Virgil is announcing to the Roman people. Etc.
I’m excited for now. We’ll see if I hold on to that topic when the New Testament seminars roll around starting on Thursday.
On another note, I’ve decided to stay in Annapolis for my Thanksgiving break. I told my manager at the coffee shop that I’d like to work everyday if possible to cover the shifts of the people taking vacation during that time. Hopefully I’ll make enough money to largely supplement my traveling costs over Christmas break. I hope to go home for a solid two weeks or more and also to spend a week with Andrew and Licia in Pennsylvania. I haven’t come to a conclusion about when I will visit them, but I will probably only be buying one plane ticket for either the beginning or end of my visit in New York. Not buying a round-trip ticket for Thanksgiving is saving me a load of cash.
On the note of money, God has so tremendously blessed me. As usual, I’m having trouble giving an account for the amount of money that I have saved. I’m utterly convinced that I need not worry about tomorrow if I keep my eyes on the kingdom, and I’m also convinced that I only ever have as much as I’m able to give.
I love y’all. I need to do some reading and translation work. We’re working on one of Creon’s speeches in Antigone now. I think we have a few more weeks of it until we move on to English writers. We’ll be studying rhetoric, poetic meters, and some other things later in this year. Rhetoric is much more interesting than I thought it would be. I learned nothing formally about rhetoric in high school (not even what the word means, making it impossible for me to recognize that I was actually learning some of it, especially from my Latin class). Plato paints such a bad picture of the sophists and attacks rhetoricians along with them (ref. Gorgias), so last year I was under the impression that it was the “black sheep” of the liberal arts, but not so now. I’m excited.
If you think of it, pray for me according to Ephesians 1:15-23, which (NASB) reads,
For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.(It’s so wonderful how Paul preaches the gospel in the middle of and after his prayers!) I want to be enlightened, brought to a more complete understanding, of the hope that God has given me, the riches that He has lavished on me in this glorious inheritance, and the power He has to “do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (3:20). I’m being renewed in the thoughts that God has already provided everything I need, not only for salvation but for life now. I am seated, even now through faith, in heavenly places with Him in Christ Jesus! I want the same spirit of wisdom and revelation concerning this that Paul prayed for even millennia ago.
Right, back to my work. I love y’all, again.
1 comment:
Philip Thomas Mohr. This entry said two things to me: 1) I'm not sure if I want to read anymore :) and 2) I miss you brother. I'm glad that you are doing well and loving life and Jesus! I'm praying for you, Alicia
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