nox ruit et fuscis tellurem amplectitur alis
Vergil, Aeneid 8.369
On the darkest day of the year, in the middle of rural America, it’s black outside. Not even grayscale. Just black, invisible floor to invisible ceiling. In the city, streetlamps and headlights preserve at least outlines. When was the last time late-night diners couldn’t see Broadway’s sidewalks? When did they last step cautiously, nervous they might trip over black trash bags set out on white concrete?
At first, attending to the anxiety of existence can seem like a zero-sum game. Any attention turned toward the truth of the spirit is attention turned away from all we have come to think of as “life.” Thus we parcel out our moments of devotion—a church service here and there, a walk in the woods, a couple of hours of meditation a week—all the while maintaining the frenzy of our usual existence outside of those moments. This is inevitable, for the initial demands of the spirit are intense, but it is not sustainable, for the soul is not piecemeal. We are left with this paradox: only by hearing the furthest call of consciousness can we hear the call of ordinary life, but only by claiming the most mundane and jangling details of our lives can that rare and ulterior music of the soul merge with what Seamus Heaney calls “the music of what happens.”
Last year, I published an essay on John Comenius and the first children’s picture book at the Public Domain Review, and I’m happy to report that it is now available in print!
You can order your copy of the collection here, with a discount and guaranteed Christmas delivery if you order by November 18. Scope it out.
The Public Domain Review is a non-profit publication that aims to “promote and celebrate the public domain in all its abundance and variety, and help our readers explore its rich terrain – like a small exhibition gallery at the entrance to an immense network of archives and storage rooms that lie beyond”—you can read more about their work at their own site. It’s a great publication with an honorable mission. If you like what you see, consider making a donation!