Via Filippo Juvara

 And here's another picture of another street sign here in Terrasini, this time of the Via Filippo Juvara. Born in Messina in 1678, and thus a proud son of Sicily, he died in Madrid in 1736. Apparently, he died of pneumonia, although there were also rumors that he was poisoned (because, well, I guess because he was Sicilian there had to be at least the hint of a mysterious death). Juvara was an influential architect, associated with the Baroque movement, not only in Italy but throughout Europe, with his most lasting contribution occurring in Turin. He spent a short time in Portugal, and although his plans for the royal palace never came to fruition, he so impressed the Portuguese king that he was granted a wealthy year pension (which somehow makes sense to me, knowing Portugal as I do - I was also thinking that he had designed a famous Lisbon building that was destroyed in the famous earthquake, but that was just me romanticizing his life even further).

Truthfully, He was such an influential architect during his age that he no doubt deserves a more impressive street (with apologies to anyone who lives on Via Filippo Juvara). I'm not really certain how the names are assigned here in Terrasini, although I'm quite happy that they're actively celebrating Italian writers and artists and sculptors and architects.

The Writer

 Just a quick note - and picture - from the last of Summer 2026 Trips of CFL Excellence, when Kevin and Erik and I drove up to Ottawa to watch the REDBLACKS game. Again, I wish we would have stayed for the weekend (this is one of the lessons that Kevin and I learned over the years: just go ahead and stay a couple days, because you never know when you're going to make it back to Winnipeg). After the game we went for a walkabout (or at least as much of a walkabout as I was capable of then) and ended up at a posh bar. I think there was a dance club with beautiful young people up on the roof. The owners of the bar gently directed to the downstairs bar because it was "quieter", which I think meant, "Dudes, you're going to ruin the vibe upstairs." Anyway, we were sitting there enjoying adult scholarly beverages, when the waitress came by with a leatherbound journal for select customers to write in. Naturally, she handed over the journal to Erik, who is actually a legitimate writer who has penned several novels and countless articles. Just as they were right to steer away from the roof, they were right in handing to opportunity/responsibility to Erik. Kevin and I were just happy that they didn't size us up and ask us to carry in some boxes from the back.

Either Erik was simply clearly the writer at the table - or he was also simply the best-looking guy at the table - both of which were demonstrably true. As to be expected, his words were thoughtful and beautiful. 

As My Servant Deems Me to Be

 "God most high says, 'I am as my servant deems Me to be. I am with him when he remembers Me. Whosoever remembers Me within himself, I shall remember him in Myself. Whosoever remembers Me in company, I shall remember him in company better than them. Should he approach Me by a hand, I shall approach him by a cubit, and should he approach Me by a cubit, I shall approach him by a fathom. Should he come to Me walking, I shall go to him running.'" Hadith

I'm certain I've discussed this passage before as well, as it is one of my favorites. It is a hadith, although technically a hadith qudsi or "sacred hadith." A hadith is a saying associated with the Prophet. As I've discussed previously, I have issues with the hadith, not so much the idea behind them but rather their practice. There are thousands and thousands of hadith, and an astonishingly high percentage of them are of rather doubtful legitimacy. There's a whole school of Islamic science based on tracking down the legitimacy of hadith, based on a series of specific criteria (it's actually quite fascinating). Many are outright forgeries, while others may well be true, but simply can't be proven to have actually come down to us from the Prophet over the centuries. If you attend a Friday service in a local mosque you're probably as likely to hear a hadith quoted as a passage from the Qur'an itself. There have been times when I heard a hadith quoted as a central point of a sermon that I, even with my limited knowledge of the subject, knew to be of somewhat problematical authenticity. Still, they are a central part of the Islamic world, and they're not going away anytime soon, but it would be nice of Imams would be a little more deliberate in pointing out that the hadith which is sitting at the center of that week's talk was debated by Islamic scholars. A hadith qudsi is a hadith that quotes God, but isn't in the Qur'an (it's more complicated than that, of course, but for our purposes here I think that will suffice); consequently, they're held to be especially significant.

After that somewhat lengthy intro, I suppose I should actually talk about why I love this hadith so much. As I mentioned previously, I'm carving off time every morning for more reading, study, and reflection, and not falling into the trap of leaving it to Ramadan to "get caught up." Seyyed Hossein Nasr quoted this hadith in his commentary on the Quranic passage, "So remember Me, and I shall remember you. Give thanks unto Me and disbelieve not in Me." (2:152) Obviously, the notion of continually remembering God is an immensely important concept, and in this case I mean the necessity of keeping God and faith in our hearts and minds every moment of the day. I don't think that faith is based on huge, showy, public events, but rather the constant work of reacting to the world around you - essentially, the hundred times a day when you have the opportunity to do small kindnesses for other people. To me, that's the work of faith. That said, I've always been fascinated by the opening line, "I am as my servant deems Me to be." The following lines speak to God's desire to have a relationship with believers, and her/his/its desire to go the extra mile (or cubit) to reach that relationship. In that sense, each individual determines their relationship with God, even if God is dedicated to working even harder than the believer. However, does this passage go even further? If everyone's relationship with God is different, does that also mean that God is different for each of us? That is, God is what each believer "deems Me to be." I'm enough of a Stoic to understand that everything in the world is really defined by our perception of it - or, as Epictetus would remind us, "It's not the event, but rather our response to the event," that shapes our perception of the significance and meaning of the event. Everything in this world is based on what we bring to that interaction, but we tend to think that the divine would exist outside of the tyranny of senses and memory. It's certainly another reason to not fall into the trap of imagining God in human form, something the Jews and Muslims avoid but a trap the Christians fell into pretty early (too much time hanging around the Greeks and Romans, no doubt). 

Via Nino Martoglio

 Nino Martoglio was a writer, poet, and director of both stage and screen, who was born in 1870 in Belpasso and died in 1921 in Catania; so, one of Sicily's own. That said, he was famous throughout Italy, and founded both theater and cinema companies in Rome. He directed three early films, sadly all of which have been lost (which, as we've discussed, is all too often the fate of movies from the early days of cinema). His works were known for beauty, but also for focusing on the tremendous gaps between rich and poor.

Apparently, the phrase "died under mysterious circumstances" is just a part of Sicilian biographies. Martoglio died at age 51 when he mysteriously fell down an elevator shaft when visiting his sick son at a hospital in Catania.

The Other Guttuso

 Yesterday I mentioned that there are actually two streets named Via Renato Guttuso here in Terrasini. This inspired me to scroll back through pictures on my phone from my various and sundry morning walks, to see if I had any shots of the "other" Via Renato Guttuso. It's a much longer and winding version than the one I more routinely walk past, but I didn't seem to have many pictures of it. However, I did have this photo of the end of that Via Renato Guttuso, as it finally drops down to the sea by the largest of the beaches here in Terrasini. I don't think I've ever seen roads like this in the US, but you do occasionally see them in Europe. There is a sort of logic to the construction, but they're definitely not for the faint of heart. 

I found this a little nerve-wracking to walk down, but, truthfully, I think it would be much worse to drive down.

Iliade

 As I've mentioned, our time here in Terrasini has featured occasional victories and a motley collection of failures. One of our biggest failures has been in trying to find alternative spaces to read and writer and simply be. Essentially, we look for other spaces so we're not in each other's grill all the time. Actually, we get along famously, and are very good at working side by side, but I think we would both appreciate optional spaces that we could go to in the course of a day. One of the things that I found most disconcerting about retirement was that for the first time in over four decades I didn't have an office, another space where I could go to work. There were many aspects of retired life that I predicted, but that was one that I didn't see being such a problem. Maybe it's simply a reminder that I don't really matter anymore, and have entered the +1, trying to do die as unobtrusively as possible, stage of latter life. Our new place is better for carving off space, and Janet is putting together a great little unofficial office upstairs, but it's still only a one bedroom apartment. I work at the kitchen table, which is perfectly fine, but wherever we settle in the future we'll definitely need another room or two to truly make it all work (oh, and some bookshelves, obviously). When we were investigating possible towns and cities, we came up with a lot list of prerequisites (most of which seemed to be reflections of what we loved so much about Evora, Portugal). One of them was a library where we could take turns working. However, the concept of a public library is much more of an American phenomenon that we realize. There's a lovely, and growing, little library here in Terrasini, La Biblioteca Comunale, Claudio Cataflio. However, it doesn't have separate carrels or even a table where a person could set up a couple books or notes or a laptop and get some writing done. There were a couple tables in the children's section, but the woman behind the counter was insistent that I not enter (although there were other adults there). I'm assuming that you thought I was some mysterious creepy old dude and it would be best to keep me away from the children, and I completely understand that. So, the search goes on. Sometimes I just set up at a local coffeeshop and work for a bit, slowly nursing drinks and snacks, and you can make that work occasionally, but I need something more structured and dependable.

There was a lovely and musty and growing collection of books in the stacks - and Italian versions of Homer just screamed a perfect place for me to work - but there wasn't really anyplace inside of the stacks to work. 

Everyone Has a Direction

     Everyone has a direction toward which he turns. So vie with one another in good deeds. Wheresoever you are, God will bring you all together. Truly God is Powerful over all things. Quran 2:148

I know I've discussed this Quranic verse before, no doubt in the year I devoted to writing about faith every day. However, it's just one that is so near and dear to my heart, and how I try (too often unsuccessfully) to approach my life. I've been carving off dedicated time each morning for more intentional spiritual time and study, and this popped up again. To me, it speaks to so much of what is good and pure and central - and should be more good and more pure and more central - to Islam, and, for that matter, all faith. Every religion has its own qiblah or, more generally, its own direction, its own way of approaching the divine. And you need to accept that while yours may seem the best, in the end it's only one of many. How then are you to address those differences? Mainly you should be working on your own faith, fighting your own internal battles, trying to be a better person every moment of every day. And others? "So vie with one another in good deeds." You "compete" with them only in the goodness that you work to produce, the help that you give to others, the kindness with which you treat all living creatures. It's such a simple concept, but how much better would the world be if that pursued that simple goal? As I've often proposed, most of the world's problems would begin to sort themselves out before the day was out.