Rome Journal: La Prossima Volta

There are some people who live life under the aspect of eternity and others who apparently have no idea what eternity  means. Heidegger argued that without the awareness of the imminence of death one could not live an "authentic" existence. Of course Camus argued that the only philosophical problem was suicide but he was a writer of fictions whose mandate was not to seek the truth. In Italian "the last time" is "l'ultima volta." The sound of words is a giveaway. "Volta" is very emphatic and sounds a little like "volare" "to fly" or "volere" "to want." One wonders what the grid of NY transportation would look like if Robert Moses had become a Rome Fellow? Would the LIE have been modeled on the Appia Antica which passes the Circus of Maxentius? Would the black hole of congestion and Procrustean destruction that made way for the Cross Bronx Expressway have have been spared by a dose of the "eternal city." Rome is filled with labyrinthine streets, secret passageways and cul de sacs that provide a glimpse of eternity. 

read NPR's Joan Baum on The Kafka Studies Department

and listen to "Maybe" by The Chantels