Last night, there was a guest speaker at my institution—Rod Dreher, a conservative journalist. This time around he is speaking in support of his recently published How Dante Can Save Your Life. I am always glad to attend and support an event devoted to a great poem.
As it turns out, most of his talk was autobiographical—focusing on how he, a non-specialist, non-academic, non-fiction reader, found a way out of his own dark wood by reading a poem he never expected to enjoy.
As his talk went on, his descriptions of depression resonated with me. And then he talked about being at his father’s death bed (a mere month ago). It was deeply moving, and if you were listening you could hear him making the implicit argument that these old poems (the things people like me work so hard to preserve and teach) can have a value to any reader ready to approach them.
That kind of advice is the best advice we humanists can give to a public adrift.
I also wept. I miss my dear Mother in Law.
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