Tony DiBenedetto

Hanging on for the ride!

[Trevor Noah @Trevornoah]

There’s nothing wrong with inheriting advantages.

The weird part is pretending you started from nowhere.

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

Why does Mary look younger than Jesus in Michelangelo's Pietà?

The answer is one of the most beautiful in art history...

Mary is holding the body of her 33 year old son, but she looks 20. Critics noticed it the moment the sculpture was unveiled in 1499. The mother of a man who has just been crucified would have been in her late forties or early fifties. Michelangelo had carved her as a girl.

His own biographer, Ascanio Condivi, was the one who finally asked him why. The answer Michelangelo gave is preserved in Condivi's Life of Michelangelo and has been repeated for centuries: "Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste? How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious desire that might change her body?"

Most modern critics treat this answer as a half-serious deflection. Michelangelo was famous for his sharp tongue and refused to explain himself to people he considered beneath his intellect.

The deeper answer is older, and it lies inside one of the greatest poems ever written. In the final canto of Dante's Paradiso, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux begins his prayer to the Virgin with one of the most extraordinary lines in Italian literature:

"Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio."
"Virgin mother, daughter of your own son."

Michelangelo, who knew Dante by heart, was carving that line into stone. Mary is younger than Jesus because Jesus is older than the universe... because she gave birth to her own creator.

But there is another reading, simpler than either of those, and it is the one I find myself thinking of today. Every mother who has held her child has held them at every age at once. The infant is still inside the toddler. The toddler is still inside the teenager. The young man on her lap, even dead, is also the boy she nursed and the baby she first carried home.

And maybe that's why Michelangelo did not carve Mary as the years had aged her. He carved her as love had kept her: outside of time, outside of grief, holding her son the way she had always held him...

Happy Mother's Day.

-- -- --

If you enjoyed this, I write a weekly newsletter read by over 50,000 people who love rediscovering the beauty of the past. You can join us here:

https://t.co/hgJUdR0jlx

I write about beauty in all its forms. If you'd like to support my work, a paid subscription is what makes it possible.

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@FlavioVolpe1 Congratulations Flavio!

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@RichK225 @DannyDeraney Mine also...Leopold!

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@mamboitaliano__ I do this regularly, especially today il mio compleanno🎂

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@strombo One of my favorite movies. Went to the theatre to see it. The band members backing them up were some of the best musicians in the business.

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@FlavioVolpe1 Congratulazioni Flavio ! Ben meritato.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

In the dramatic circumstances of war, information must guard against the risk of turning into propaganda. It is every journalist's duty to verify the news, so as not to become a megaphone for power. They must show the suffering that war always brings to populations, which entails showing the face of war and recounting it through the eyes of victims.

[Shawn Spradling @Shawn_Spradling]

The Italian broadcast call of Italy’s historic win over Team USA in the World Baseball Classic 🇮🇹

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@70s80s90sKids Liked? LOVED!!!

[Dimitris Soudas 🇨🇦⚜️🇬🇷☦️ 13.12.1943 @DimitrisSoudas]

I worked on this file.

From one former spokesperson to another. With affection. And a red pen.

Fact check time.

Canada does not control what crosses the bridge. Customs and border enforcement are exercised by each country on its own side. Like every other border crossing on Earth. This is not a novelty. It is the border.

Canada does not own the land on both sides. Canada owns the Canadian side. The State of Michigan owns the U.S. side. That is literally the definition of a border.

The bridge was built with American labor. Thousands of American workers. Billions added to Michigan’s GDP. American steel was used. This is not a hypothetical. It is documented. Repeatedly.

Ownership. There is no single owner of “the bridge” in the way this is being framed. Each country owns and controls its side. Again. Border. That was the deal. Signed. Ratified. Applauded.

Economic benefits. The U.S. already gets them. Jobs. GDP. Trade flow. Regional growth. That is what a functioning border crossing does.

And just for the record. The President himself praised the project in 2017 and called for its expeditious completion. On paper. In a joint statement. With Canada.

You can change your mind. You can change your politics. You can even change your story.

But you cannot polish a turd.

[Tony the C @tonytmg]

@sallgoodman69

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@FlavioVolpe1 Alas, you "can't fix stupid"

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@AirCanada AC just booked me on a flight on Tuesday . All good.

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@AirCanada My fight is canceled for tomorrow. AC just notified me they can’t rebook on any flights in the next 3 days. I am trying to talk to someone but wait time is over 3 hours. I am in the queue . I do see some fights over the next 2 days. Any help would be appreciated

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@sorianojohnd @RNicholasBurns Just read your post and I realize "you can't fix stupid"

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@michaelcoren So it is your fault.
Happy Birthday!

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@StarshipAlves @dakotakochie After reading your post I realize "you can't fix stupid"

[Tony DiBenedetto @Tenor44]

@FlavioVolpe1 Buon Anno Flavio