"Dis Superis Par"

     Today, my reading from Brevissima was #213 from that collection, titled "Dis Superis Par" ("Equal to the Gods Above") by the editor. The poem comes from Urbano Appendini (1777-1834), De Educatione Disticha ("Couplets About Education"). The Latin text reads:

Qui sollers facienda facit vitandaque vitat,

Hunc ego dis superis arbitror esse parem.

     I can relate! Roughly rendered in English, this is:

"An experienced man who does what needs to be done and avoids what must be avoided,

I judge that man to be the equal of the gods above."

     As I stumble through my day as the father of four boys (17, 15, 4, and 2), trying to get even one thing done every day that must be done and trying to avoid parenting perils (in vain, all in vain!), I concede that the thought of anyone who ever gets anything done seems to be the equivalent of being godlike to me . . .