New Perspectives

You know, I really do love my majors. I love talking about history, as evidenced by my travel blog, and I love talking about literature.

About a week ago, I got to combine both of my majors and my Europe experience in a class discussion. We were talking about my new second-favorite poem called Dream of the Rood - the Rood being the cross Christ was crucified on. The poem tells the story of Christ's crucifixion from the point of view of the cross, making parallels between the cross and the believer, and the poem is tear-inducing both for its theology and its literary beauty.

Anyway, as part of understanding the poem, we also read the legend of the cross, from its growing from a seed from the Tree of Knowledge to Helena finding it in Jerusalem. This legend shows up in the frescoes in the Cathedral of St. Francis in Arezzo. When I posted about that, I got an email from a friend (sent by that little Talk To Me box at the bottom) talking about that legend. In her email, she used a phrase I had never heard of, but when I heard it, it gave me a completely new perspective. Seriously, I felt enlightened after seeing it in her email.

Ready for it?

Here it is:

"Biblical fanfiction."

I cracked up the first time I saw it, not because it's funny, per se, but because such a funny phrase fits the story so very perfectly. When we were talking about Dream of the Rood and the Legend of the Cross in class, I mentioned that phrase, and the response was a combination of laughter and comments that sounded like, "Yeah, that's pretty much right!"

I'm so glad my friend decided to share that insight with me, because it gave me a whole new way to look at some long-standing literature. So if you, dear reader, have an insight about something you're reading, be sure to share it with people around you. You never know who might benefit from it! I was hyperbolizing a little bit about feeling "enlightened," but I am not kidding at all when I say that hearing it gave me new perspectives, and I am very grateful for it.