This means that typical freshmen entering college lack the texts of their potential humanity, even their spiritual survival. They will also face, possibly before they graduate, surely before they are thirty or forty, the loss of close friends or a family member, the loss of love, disappointed hopes. Ignorant of those heroes of ancient Greece, ignorant of Biblical heroes, ignorant of greatness, they will think themselves historically alone, confronting a new condition unaccompanied.
John Silber, Straight Shooting
I hope that one day even these ignorant will realize they don’t have to face the future unaccompanied. They will want, and will find, words to suit the moment.
Christian Leithart 