WHY THIS MISSION?
Legend has it that Galileo, in prison because of the imagined conflict between faith and reason, scrawled EPPUR SI MUOVE on the wall of his cell.
And yet it moves, he protested. The judge can put me in prison if he chooses, but the earth will continue to move, because the truth cannot be altered by shooting the messenger.
The same is true of the widespread existential angst our world is experiencing.
It won't go away until we fix it.
EPPUR SI MUOVE means, and yet it moves. Legend has it that Galileo wrote this on the wall of his jail cell as a message to the world:
You can put me in prison but the earth will continue to move, because the truth cannot be destroyed nor altered.
Our society would like to ignore and forget the widespread sadness and despair, which are threatening civilization.
But forgetting and ignoring are not solutions. The problem will continue to exist until we answer it.
We need a source of joy, as clear as a spring, as constant as the sunrise, as full of life as the energy that formed the earth.
It is worth mentioning that the Church, who was scandalized by Galileo and put him on trial, was founded by Jesus, who also said "blessed is the one who is not scandalized by me."
Of course the official Church of that time put Jesus on trial as well, and the judge in that trial was not so lenient as the judge of Galileo.
WHY A WEBSITE?
It's an inexpensive way to reach across the world with a message of hope.
WHY USE BOOKS AND COURSES?
Just as a pile of wood, glass, tile, and bricks won't make a home until organized in a certain way, useful and solid thoughts need to be organized as well in order to serve the purpose they were meant to serve.
WHY THESE TEACHERS?
The three teachers we have chosen all experienced devastating sadness and interestingly, though they come from different times, places and cultures, and quite possibly would not have gotten along very well, they all share certain common opinions about where sadness comes from.
All were in favor of peace and humility, of nature, in favor of spirituality and against consumerism as a life philosophy or social structure.
All three were also mocked for one reason or another, and in general, were appreciated far more after their deaths then while they were alive.
The Pasolini course was actually the first one we chose, and that is because he wrote an essay called, The Unhappy Young People, and designed a program of study to remedy that sadness.
He also wrote an essay called Drugs, a True Italian Tragedy.
But the life of Pasolini is very misunderstood and some of his work is so disgusting as to be unwatchable.
So, we have placed his course at the end of the year, rather than at the beginning, situating it in the larger context of all the material taken together.
You can put me in prison but the earth will continue to move, because the truth cannot be destroyed nor altered.
Our society would like to ignore and forget the widespread sadness and despair, which are threatening civilization.
But forgetting and ignoring are not solutions. The problem will continue to exist until we answer it.
We need a source of joy, as clear as a spring, as constant as the sunrise, as full of life as the energy that formed the earth.
It is worth mentioning that the Church, who was scandalized by Galileo and put him on trial, was founded by Jesus, who also said "blessed is the one who is not scandalized by me."
Of course the official Church of that time put Jesus on trial as well, and the judge in that trial was not so lenient as the judge of Galileo.
WHY A WEBSITE?
It's an inexpensive way to reach across the world with a message of hope.
WHY USE BOOKS AND COURSES?
Just as a pile of wood, glass, tile, and bricks won't make a home until organized in a certain way, useful and solid thoughts need to be organized as well in order to serve the purpose they were meant to serve.
WHY THESE TEACHERS?
The three teachers we have chosen all experienced devastating sadness and interestingly, though they come from different times, places and cultures, and quite possibly would not have gotten along very well, they all share certain common opinions about where sadness comes from.
All were in favor of peace and humility, of nature, in favor of spirituality and against consumerism as a life philosophy or social structure.
All three were also mocked for one reason or another, and in general, were appreciated far more after their deaths then while they were alive.
The Pasolini course was actually the first one we chose, and that is because he wrote an essay called, The Unhappy Young People, and designed a program of study to remedy that sadness.
He also wrote an essay called Drugs, a True Italian Tragedy.
But the life of Pasolini is very misunderstood and some of his work is so disgusting as to be unwatchable.
So, we have placed his course at the end of the year, rather than at the beginning, situating it in the larger context of all the material taken together.