Epiphany: Anna #18

Youth well Versed in literature

    and language. (Daniel 1:4)

Dear Anna, 

Near four years ago, your auntie Rachel set up this blog so Papa could pass on stuff. Since then, there is a handful of folks who have joined us reading along from time to time. And since I have yet to figure out how to set up a blog response; some of those looking on, may wonder if you ever respond to Papa’s blogs. Especially when I end with a “What do you think?” I learned that from Jesus, who liked to tell a parable and then ask, “What do you think?” Isn’t it something that Jesus is interested in what we think?

Anyway, where were we… oh yes, about your response. Even though I get your response via phone text; others, don’t get to see your responses. So, let me slip in your response to our last blog concerning my Renaissance surprise. Leonardo Bruni, writing in 1436, claiming that Latin reached its vigorous refinement and subtleties with Cicero (40bc) during the last days of the Republic; and, how the rise of emperors and the loss of the Republic, led to the demise of the Latin language. Which led to the claim that tyranny ruins language.

You respond: “The Latin I learn in class is the Latin from the age of Cicero… In the passage I translated today, Cicero writes that a good orator will ‘animos audientium tangit’ or ‘touch the spirits of the audience.’ I think a tyrant can use language to suppress political opposition and, in turn, creative literature.” Does that lead us to a fire pit discussion of what kind of government gives us such creative freedom; and, what sort of government suppresses creative expression? Or does political correctness eclipse creative expression?

Love, Papa