Post by Graeme Harper

The Odyssey (2026). . . I wonder if Matt Damon and Christoper Nolan know the connection between their latest movie and Oakland University? Thanks Matt! Here's to "virtue and knowledge", to the seeking of "courage and knowledge"! Thanks Chris! From the fabulous Loren Pope of the "The New York Times", author of "Colleges that Change Lives": "The MOTTO chosen [for Oakland University], SEGUIR VIRTUTE E CANOSCENZA, has a very distinguished provenience, Canto XXVI, 1. 120, of Dante's Inferno. . . . urging them to sail on and on in pursuit of knowledge and experience of the world -- even beyond the pillars of Hercules, traditionally the frontier and limit of legitimate exploration. This is the three-line stanza: "Considerate la vostra semenza Fatti non foste a viver come bruti Ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza.   "Consider your birth [or "origin"] You were not made to live like brutes But to follow courage and knowledge" "this motto, and its setting, seem appropriate for a university, since its words are both a call to learning and a challenge to the learner. As spoken by the heroic Ulysses, they remind us that the quest for knowledge also requires courage of the quester and entails both risks and responsibilities. But, as this stanza also tells us, the pursuit of courage and knowledge is one of the things that separate man from the rest of creation; it is radically humanistic." (Memo: 1962) The Odyssey (2026): https://lnkd.in/gsZvxJxk Photo: Margo Evardson