Patience

First off, I'd like to apologize for not keeping up on the blog like I should be. The last couple of weeks have been busy. Too busy for my liking.

I've been thinking. The secret moral of the story of the class is patience. Through mythology, we learn to be patient with others and ourselves. If someone is feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders, it's perfectly acceptable because there are books upon books of people that have been in the same situation. Be patient because the world moves in cycles and your periods of down will be followed by periods of up. In Ovid's Metamorphosis, the heroes make the mistake of not being patient enough and then pay for their mistake at the whims of the Gods. If Icarus had been a bit more patient, he would've flown just fine. Proserpina and Eve impatiently ate forbidden fruits without thinking through the consequences. In one of the few stories with a happy ending, Pygmalion lived happily ever after with his statue because he was patient. Only the Gods are able to be impatient. Only they are allowed instant gratification. For the rest of us measly mortals, we must wait our turn.

Dr. Sexson is dolling out patience by the handfuls every time he interacts with us. Some people (myself included) are learning patience through reading thousands of pages of literature. Will what I read now ever help me in life later?

Others are searching for patience in their writing. Will what I say now be relevant in 3, 5, or 10 years? Now I'm sure Dr. Sexson will argue that whatever you write down is important, but let's be honest, the world has only so much patience. It is humanly impossible to read every work of literature ever written. But with the help of Ovid's Metamorphosis we can patiently realize that there is really only a set of stories that are being rewritten over and over again.

I just hope it means I have to read less.