Dante, Bill and God Fearing Persons

Here is a little known (and nearly utterly useless) fact. In Dante’s original draft of the Divine Comedy, he described the ninth and innermost ring of the Inferno as: a condition of union and being with all things having to do with Micro Soft Power Point.

You might ask: What life lessons could possibly be derived from such a nearly utterly useless fact? Well, Ill tell you:

#1 Dante evidently thought that imparting to God fearing persons that eternal damnation might involve Power Point was too horrifying to divulge (in the end, I think that he went with the whole river of lava and being burned alive thing…).

And #2 evidently Bill Gates (the founder of Micro Soft…and therefore the evil architect behind the advent of Power Point) is in fact a major Demon if not the Devil himself!

This image is from the original illustrated draft of the Divine Comedy

The image just a reproduction of course. Had you viewed the original, it is very likely that you would have turned to stone within mere seconds.

melting under the snow

A thing that I will never get used to is the way in which this place can maintain snow covered mountain peaks well into June, all the while searing everyone in sight with temperatures well into the 90s and beyond. But stranger than this, is how easy it is not to notice the beauty of this place. It is very possible and likely for a man to become overly occupied with his immediate tasks and purpose, to have one’s head oriented down, to stare only at a specific pile of tasks….a specific pile of sand. Never pausing to consider how all of these things connect and how they matter to each other.
Today is my 35th day on station. The shock of being back here has passed and I have settled into a routine of sorts. Time seems to have slowed to a crawl. As ever, I wish and pray for time to speed along it’s path so that I can make my way home.