“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate”

 

A lot of you already know me pretty well. I’m the source of all the truly good advice you get. I don’t admit to mistakes, but it’s true I have vices. These are music, art, logic, poetry, and women. Also beverages. My taste in each of these arenas is probably different from your own and what you’d expect from a man like me. But we have time here to get to know each other better. One way I can persuade that my advice really is the best advice you’ll find anywhere. Better, I don’t care if you follow it. Unlike most, I don’t have a dog in that hunt, although I do like dogs, which I would never categorize as a vice but a virtue. I have some of those too, but virtue is always less interesting than vice. There are interesting things that are neither, such as toys, which I enjoy because at their best they are human constructs that combine our vices and virtues in transcendent ways. It’s the same with nature, which consists of meta-human constructs that perform the same combinatory function without having any particular moral content. I like nature, though maybe not as much as toys. But that’s just me. Room for all sorts in this universe. 

I think that’s enough of a hello for now. See you all down the road a ways, if and when the mood strikes.

Told you I was different. There are at least nine places to rest. You won’t enjoy them all.