A little more on reading the Greeks

Like countless others who grew up in the South, I was raised on the Bible. And, of course, the claims of exceptionalism are made unapologetically for that book: It’s the word of God.

I still read passages with pleasure. But somewhere around the age of Huck Finn, I ran across a page or two that made me doubt the claims of exceptional wisdom. I wondered whether this was the best mankind could do, much less God.

A few years later, I discovered that the ancient Greeks, especially Plato and Herodotus, were more interesting to me. All personal discoveries are small, but that one was important to me. Given the freedom to read whatever interested me, I chose to read the Greeks.

It's a small detail that somehow shaped a personality.