What I am thankful for 1: My family and friends

I read Dante. No, I’m not talking about Dante’s Peak or The Dante Club. I read Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. I survived it to tell the story and I even enjoyed the experience. After we have thoroughly established now that I am a nerd, yes even a geek, we can return to the true subject of this post.

The Divine Comedy, written in the darkest parts of the Middle Ages, is considered one of the major works of world literature. Narrated in the first person it gives an account of a trip to the afterworld with return. Honi soit qui mal y pense and chastisement for those who chalk Dante’s visions up to the consume of too much of the good Italian red wine or the use of forbidden substances, subject to the Narcotics Act

Anyway, according to Dante the place located between heaven and hell, Inferno and Paradiso, is called Purgatorio. It is the area of sublimation and catharsis. In Dante’s mind it was a mountain rising from the ocean with a path winding around it towards the light. Other as in hell, there pain and desolation can’t be outgunned by anything else, on the mountain dominates hope, critical self-reflection and learning.

Now, Dante’s medieval, Christian vision of the world is somewhat hard to reconcile one to one with my Jewish-secular, scientific coined picture of the world today, to boot as my visions of an afterlife with heaven and hell drift towards zero. Yet, I am attracted by the powerful picture of a mountain ascent via a spiraled path when I think about life.

Frequently I end up at a point in life where I am crept over by a feeling I’ve been there already, maybe a short while or a long while ago. And then again not. The perspective on the future, on what lays ahead of me, might be the same. But the level from that the reflection is done has changed. I have proceeded on the spiral path around the mountain and, as I have learnt things on my way, I hopefully have ascended some.

Sometimes, a detour or shortcut via the direct way up might seem tempting. Sometimes, boulders, rubbles, trees might block my outlook onto the familiar sight and might bring me in danger to loose myself. Sometimes, I’ll make a false step at challenging places and will be in danger to slip off.

But then my family and friends are on the spot. They line the path, grant me their company for a certain leg or my whole life – might they be close at my side or further away. They are my rope team, my mountain rescue service, my security net and sometimes the thorn in my flesh that eggs me on.

I am thankful for that, I am thankful for you.

 

This post was created as part of a global groundswell of gratitude called TweetsGiving. The celebration, created by US nonprofit Epic Change, is an experiment in social innovation that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. I hope you’ll visit the TweetsGiving site to learn more, and to bring your grateful heart to the party by sharing your gratitude, and giving in honor of that for which you’re most thankful.

Tags: Dante, Divine Comedy, family, friends, gratitude, Me, thankfulness, tweetsgiving