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Yeah, I read the Diving Comedy.

So What?

Does that make me a better man? Does that make me wiser for having read it?

I read it in a fever dream of mass hysteria, guilt, and confusion in which I wrestled with god in cacoon of my own self-righteous, twisted ego because I was not who I thought I was, and that fact had finally been revealed to me.

I was not a hero in my own play, but just a passerby in a much larger work.

But so what? So it humbled me, so it made me think, these are things we should all do, all the time.

Do I claim to have understood every passage with perfect clarity? Do I claim that what it meant most to me was not that I found the words beautiful and inspiring?

Inspiration is all around us, it means no less to the common man than it does to us.

Don't be lazy. Don't fall into the trap. Spread your wings. Dive through gutters. Dig through dime novels and pulp fiction and comic books.

Aspire to read things that are forbidden. Read things that are boring or you thought to have no merit. See for your self. Aspire to things beyond your ken, make a master of yourself those things which fill your head with conceit or insecurities.

And always, always, always, keep an open mind. There is always more to know.