Into the dark with Dante

Midway along the journey of our life
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered off from the straight path.

With these words Dante opens his immortal epic the Divine Comedy, in which the poet-pilgrim’s journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise represents every soul’s quest for salvation. In an age that has largely discarded the myth of the three-story afterlife, why does the Commedia—Divina was added by a later publisher—retain its universal standing and appeal? I believe that the clue is in the opening tercet, for its images speak to the uncertainties of every generation, to those who have awakened, as from a dream, to discover that their lives and grand aspirations are half spent and that they are lost in an impenetrable darkness from which they cannot extricate themselves.

When we are in such a bind, our first impulse is to grab a map. But our maps of assured results and quantifiable outcomes, to say nothing of success, happiness, and love, have proved inaccurate or out of date. The mapmakers are as lost as we are. Then again, if you were lost in a dark wood of addiction, illness, or despair, which would you rather have: a map that may or may not be accurate, or a single faithful guide who knows the terrain, having walked it before? Dante’s advice: Forget the map. Take the guide.