What is the point of raising awareness? When we received an email from our sonâs high school requesting our consent for him to attend an âawareness classâ for the second year in a row, we refused. My wife wrote them that he had already taken this class last year and that he didnât need to hear it all over again.
When we asked him what kind of awareness they raised, he told us a bunch of stuff that was not easy to listen to. One might say, âBut this is life. The child needs to know all these things to be prepared.â
Like many medieval thinkers, Dante sincerely believed that a person cannot see hell until they have seen enough Paradise. To be prepared to see evil, one must spend most of their time in Paradise.
In Divine Comedy, Canto 28, Dante, speaking of Beatrice, says: âShe imparadised my mind.â
Quella che âmparadisa la mia mente.
It turns out there is no such word in Italian. Dante invented it to show what Beatrice did for him. She placed his mind firmly in Paradise â âimparadisedâ his mind. Only with Paradise imprinted deep in our minds are we prepared to face the Inferno.
We knew that the school wasnât doing for our son what Beatrice did for Dante. They donât imparadise his mind. The âraising awarenessâ idol demands that children be placed right into hell to be prepared for hell. There is no preparation for hell in hell. Itâs a soul-contaminating mechanism.
The best way to be prepared for darkness is to have enough experience of light. The best way to be prepared for hardship is to have enough experience of joy. The best way to be prepared for the earth is to have enough experience of heaven.
Thatâs what Franco Nembrini, a famous Italian pedagogue and a director of a private school, told a father who kept telling his son that life was a bunch of bullshit. When Franco asked why he kept telling him that, the father was surprised: âBecause itâs true! He must know that.â
Franco paused and said, âI agree. Life is often bullshit. But since, as you say, you are already there, it makes no sense to dive deeper into it. I can promise you that even if you are head and shoulders into this thing, you will see a speck of light if you only look up. Let it be your guide. Go up, not down. If you follow that speck of light, it will lead you out of that thing. Teach your son to look at the stars.â
We have forgotten what medieval thinkers knew instinctively â you must not look at evil until your mind is imparadised. Evil will break you and corrupt you. We believe in raising awareness about hell but not Paradise. Hell does not prepare you to face hell; it prepares you to become part of it.
When we find ourselves in BS, itâs time to look up, not down. One of the best metaphors for the power of looking up is the experience of ancient Israelites in the desert. They were in a bunch of BS of their own making after incessant complaining about eating manna every day. Poisonous snakes came out of nowhere and started biting people.
