{"id":4912,"date":"2026-06-16T05:55:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T05:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/?p=4912"},"modified":"2026-06-16T05:55:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T05:55:23","slug":"straightening-the-skewed-perceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/2026\/06\/16\/straightening-the-skewed-perceptions\/","title":{"rendered":"Straightening the skewed perceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/2026\/06\/16\/straightening-the-skewed-perceptions\/attachment\/090\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4914\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-4914\" src=\"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/090-1024x585.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/090-1024x585.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/090-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/090-768x439.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/090.jpg 1344w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Why the portal to the Good Life can be hard to find.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here is the opening of Canto X in Purgatory:<\/p>\n<p><em>Poi fummo dentro al soglio de la porta\u00a0<\/em><br \/>\n<em>che \u2018l mal amor de l\u2019anime disusa,\u00a0<\/em><br \/>\n<em>perch\u00e9 fa parer dritta la via torta<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Literally: Then we were inside the threshold of the gate, that bad loves of the soul leaves in &#8220;disuse&#8221;, because they make the twisted path already seem right.<\/p>\n<p>So Dante makes a big point in the opening tercet here: many people will never start the process of correcting internal distortions and twisted apprehensions of the world &#8211; not because of avoidance or reluctance to admit this, but because everything will seem fine. The twisted filters on the world are thus not like the &#8220;funny mirrors&#8221; where you clearly can see the misrepresentation of reality, but they are largely not detectable in themselves. The twisted road will seem straight.<\/p>\n<p>Meaning: introspection for &#8220;flaws&#8221; is thus partly impossible to do directly. Aiming for the Good and for Virtue, in Humility, and starting a process, is what will heal and clear up the perceptions and experience of the world. That, and finding a good guide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why the portal to the Good Life can be hard to find. Here is the opening of Canto X in Purgatory: Poi fummo dentro al soglio de la porta\u00a0 che \u2018l mal amor de l\u2019anime disusa,\u00a0 perch\u00e9 fa parer dritta &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/2026\/06\/16\/straightening-the-skewed-perceptions\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purgatory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4912"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4922,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912\/revisions\/4922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}