Hoping for an all-South Florida NCAA final tonight, I now find myself thinking I may not even watch the game. Instead of two teams I have some connection to, there are two teams I care nothing about.
Had there been a University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University final, I probably would have favored the latter. I liked the UM team, and I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years at the university’s medical center. But I once audited a course at FAU.
It was 2003 and I was planning a summer trip to Greece for the Sun-Sentinel. I had never read the Iliad, and thought that doing so alone I would miss a lot. FAU offered a Greek Literature in Translation course at its Broward campus and I asked the professor if I could sit in.
It was time well-spent. The professor was in his 40s, short, quiet, rather nondescript, but he brought that ancient text to life. He not only explained but enthused, and transferred his passion onto the class. When the course was over, I read the Odyssey on my own and didn’t enjoy it nearly as much – and it’s a travel story!
