There's an episode of the Simpsons in which Bart is forced to take ballet lessons. He learns to love it, until the school bullies find him out. As he tries to escape by leaping across a gorge, his ballet teacher (a Natalia Makarova lookalike) screams to him from his subconscious to "Use the ballet - jump like you've never jumped before". Ballet is pronounced in the American way, as in ball-et.
In my down moments, Suzie (my wife) chivvies me along, saying I must "Use the ballet!". I looked up 'accidia' earlier, feeling myself to be a little in the grip of it. According to St John of the Ladder (who I also discovered on Google)
"Accidia is the breakdown of the soul, the disorientation of the mind, negligence of ascetic practice, hatred of monasticism, love of worldliness, irreverence toward God, forgetfulness of prayer."
Got it one, I think.
Irrelevant here, I know, but it bears telling: in the latest episode of the Simpsons, Homer and Bart convert to Catholicism (seriously!). The family goes to a Latin Mass. Bart does the Sign of the Cross in Latin. Homer's mystified. Lisa explains. " It's Latin, the language of Plutarch!" "Mickey Mouse's dog".
Previous posting; Thoughts during ballet class
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