A brush with Greatness
ahhhhhh one of the nice things about living in Rome is the complete random happiness of moments that jump out at you and make you feel glad you are living here.
today i had the fortune to meet Reginald Foster, who, for those of you who love Latin may already know, is probably the world's most iconoclastic and infamous living Latinists, chief in fact to the last four "Papi".
i met Reggie for the first time, this afternoon at the gates in front of Vatican City on Via Angelico along with several of his current and former students, all who are championing his cause, to find his classes a new home. as he walked slowly over to meet the group for an impromptu lunch, i was almost embarrassed when he said "and who are you???!!!" to which one of his associates responded that i worked for a small local university that perhaps would be interested in hosting his classes post departure from The Greg.
a Carmelite monk with a verve like no other, Reggie was all the things the press, his former colleagues at the Gregoriana and his students have indicated and then something more. i found him to be charismatic, humorous, and exceedingly frank in addition to intelligent. all qualities i admire but in the body of a scholar and professor made me, a diehard thick head around languages ,want to learn Latin. i now understand perfectly why his students are so fiercely loyal to him and refer to him as The Legend" and i count myself profiled to have made his acquaintance.
meeting this man was like being in a room with a shining supernova, who tells jokes, makes you think and is irreverently reverent about the language he loves and the classes he teaches in hopes of slowing its (latin's) demise.
in the end i am not sure our little upstart University is what Reggie is looking for or needs (i hope it is but we are small and not the most prestigious) . but wherever he lands, there will be a group of smiling students and i would like to be there to see it.
any of you out there with any idea on where to find a philanthropist for a Latinist, I would love to hear from you. (present half dead laptop notwithstanding).
today i had the fortune to meet Reginald Foster, who, for those of you who love Latin may already know, is probably the world's most iconoclastic and infamous living Latinists, chief in fact to the last four "Papi".
i met Reggie for the first time, this afternoon at the gates in front of Vatican City on Via Angelico along with several of his current and former students, all who are championing his cause, to find his classes a new home. as he walked slowly over to meet the group for an impromptu lunch, i was almost embarrassed when he said "and who are you???!!!" to which one of his associates responded that i worked for a small local university that perhaps would be interested in hosting his classes post departure from The Greg.
a Carmelite monk with a verve like no other, Reggie was all the things the press, his former colleagues at the Gregoriana and his students have indicated and then something more. i found him to be charismatic, humorous, and exceedingly frank in addition to intelligent. all qualities i admire but in the body of a scholar and professor made me, a diehard thick head around languages ,want to learn Latin. i now understand perfectly why his students are so fiercely loyal to him and refer to him as The Legend" and i count myself profiled to have made his acquaintance.
meeting this man was like being in a room with a shining supernova, who tells jokes, makes you think and is irreverently reverent about the language he loves and the classes he teaches in hopes of slowing its (latin's) demise.
in the end i am not sure our little upstart University is what Reggie is looking for or needs (i hope it is but we are small and not the most prestigious) . but wherever he lands, there will be a group of smiling students and i would like to be there to see it.
any of you out there with any idea on where to find a philanthropist for a Latinist, I would love to hear from you. (present half dead laptop notwithstanding).
posted by ~Sparrow | Tuesday, October 31, 2006
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