Our journey

October 8, 2020 | David Mengel

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra semestre
 
This week we reached the midpoint of our unlooked-for semester’s journey. The stories we all could tell!
 
Plenty more lies ahead. Just as soon as I submit my midterm grades—and I exhort you to do likewise by the Monday deadline—we can take stock of the road before us.
 
I leave to you whether to measure the time until the last day of classes in weeks (7), days (48), or class days (depends on your schedule).
 
Me? I think I’ll count Dantean circles.
 
Modestly hopeful, I’ll imagine us emerging this week from the poet’s watery hemisphere (a particularly egregious Global South imaginary, one might say).

On that map, infernal fires lie behind, a nine-stage purgatorial ascent ahead.
 
And paradise beyond? Let’s not get carried away. For now, we’ll leave the music of the spheres to their firmament. Plenty of toil remains for us here below.
 
And besides: if the Florentine's terza rima is any guide, paradise seems a terribly boring place.