Choose to sin

Choose to sin __reflections on Divine Comedy (IV)

According to Dante's theory, our sins progress from low level to high level, from unconsciousness to deliberation, from abuse to violence, fraud, and betrayal, from absent mind to decisive mind. I agree that we sometimes make deliberate choices, which make us fall into sins that damage others' needs.

One examples is the terrorists, who kill people for their own believes; these believes  are so strong that they refuse to compromise or negotiate with their opponents. This situation is like that in the heretics (Farinata and Cavalcante) whom Dante encountered in Canto 10.

Another example is the fraudulence. We always face the choices in many crosses during our journey of life, and we know there are a correct way and an incorrect way by the definition of the society. The correct way is always harder than the incorrect way because the correct way costs you more endeavor to get to the destination; whereas the incorrect way is a short cut, yet it will sacrifice others' needs. Any cheat to break the rules may benefit you in the moment, but it may also bring injustice to others. These are the sins we can choose to avoid.

The meaning of life

The meaning of life__reflections on Divine Comedy (III)

"City of woe, everlasting pain, and lost soul", these are the situations in the hell described by the poet. Though God gave the choice of freedom and love, these people refused to make their choices or refused to accept God's touch by giving their believes to God, so they will remain in the hell with pain or no hope after death and the judgement by God.

The inscription does touch the core of human living, and the question of "Who Am I?". It is important, because it is a question we human have been searching for answers since we were born thousands of years ago. What is the meaning of life? To be an hero, to be helpful to the society, to look for the truth... we have many purposes in the reality, but in the end, what for? What is driving human to evolve to the future? The inscription gives us one solution: to believe in God, to give yourself to God; virtue itself is not enough, and believing God is the only way to give you the freedom and hope to live, before and after death. It's one of the world views that affect many people, but I reserve my doubts.

However, I think the Divine comedies is a wonderful work to show us the situations of real human life, where the poet characterized all kinds of people in the world, and led us think about ourselves, who we are, what we live for.

The sorrow of young Dante

About Vita Nuova __reflections on Divine Comedy (II)

The Vita Nuova, a diary of young Dante, led us into Dante's earlier years, when he was in his 20s, the puberty period to fall into loves and learn from experiences to mature. From his poems, we can obviously see what we ourselves experience in our adolescent time: we are enchanted by some beauty from the opposite sex; we have all kinds of imaginations about her/him; we are afraid to break the beautiful dreams we have, and dare not to speak out and only watched secretly far away. We keep it to ourselves, or to a few good friends. We write poems for her/him, but secretly without showing them to the love, accompanied with pain and sorrow most of the time.

The ironic thing for Dante is that although he loves Beatrice, he always avoids facing her directly, or he will blanch to death. Yet, after her death, in the end of the poem, he finally gets released from the burden. We may say that what Dante loves is not Beatrice herself as a human being, but an idealized goddess, who has no fault ever. This is true for every adolescent too. So after recoding all his feelings in his diary "the sorrow of young Dante", Dante's solution is to write a poem for the goddess lady when he matures with more human experiences, and this is how the divine comedy comes into true years later.

Tour de California Mar 2016 Day 5-8

After four days' of riding, my knees could not stand any further, and the fears and boredom occupied me for the continuing riding to San Diego through Long Beach. Most biking roads are on route 1 which is famous for narrowing roads with very narrow shoulder for cyclists. So I decided to stop at Ventura, and take train to San Diego, relaxing for the next few days, then take the train bak home.

Tour de California Mar 2016 Day 4

3/25/2016, Santa Maria---Ventura, 106 miles, 10h30m, Sunny, 60°F

After 3 days of riding, I started to lose my morale. Should I keep on riding? The pain knees, sour muscles, heartburn, and dangerous route on the highway, and less attractive views—all kept me from riding to the next destination. But the 4th day is very different, there will be different view on the seaside, I will arrive the Pacific coast at last!

I had the banana and milk for breakfast, which made me feel better with the stomach. Then I was on the way at 7:30 am. The long day started. The road is flat for all the day, though with undulating terrains, the elevation is about sea level. My first stop was Buellton, where is famous for split bean soup, which I saw from the advertise board on the roadside. But I was there too early and no restaurant was open, so I only had some radishes at MI Pueblito market. 

Then after some slight climbing, I was at Galviota, a scenery town on the coast, where the 101 highway turns at 90 degrees. It was very windy here and I was shaking on the bike. Then I began to enjoy the broad seaside view, seagulls, ships, beaches, bridges, and the Pacific rails. I was riding along the coast till the destination. 

Around 2:00 pm I arrived at Goleta, a beautiful, quiet town on the seaside, with a state university campus there. I tried to locate a Subway for my lunch, but when I was there, everything was closed. So I went back to the main road and ate a Hamburg at the McDonald's. At 3:30 pm, I was on my way again, passing Santa Barbara, crowed at the beach for the good Friday. The sunset on the Pacific sea was terrific, and I enjoyed the riding along the coast, before another kind of boredom began, when at last I arrived the Pacific Inn Motel at Ventura before dark. After bath, I had my dinner at Hong Kong Inn, where there was a small party going on and some black musicians were playing flutes. I had sizzling combo of meat and vegetables, the best dish I had so far, and my stomach was recovering now.

Tour de California Mar 2016 Day 3

3/24/2016, Paso Robles---Santa Maria, 61.8 miles, 6h, Sunny, 60°F

I waked up around 8:00 am, and walked to the nearby CVS to buy some drug for my heartburn. After taking the medicine, I felt much better and had my breakfast at House of Bagels, eating very slowly the sesame bagel with scrambled eggs, and a bottle of milk. Then I left at 10:30 am.

The road from Paso Robles to Santa Maria is mainly through undulating vineyards, with some great mounting views. The elevation is high about 1552 feet in the beginning until San Margarita, where it drops abruptly to about 60 feet. It was at the dropping moment I had the free fall happiness again, together with the running cars and trucks besides me. 

At the Souther Station Restaurant in Santa Margarita, I had some great salad, a fresh vegetable mix with salt and pepper. Then at Arroyo Grande, a small but elegant town, I had an ice cream (strawberry and mint chips) at Doc Burnsteins. I spat out all the chocolate chips to avoid the stomach stimulation. Around 18:00, I arrived at the Motel 6 in Santa Maria. After bath, I went to have the dinner (Teriyaki chicken) at D & A HAWAIIAN BBQ and bought some strawberry, banana, and milk for my next day breakfast at Foodmaxx.