γνῶθι σεαυτόν

This blog is one year old today.

I am compelled to attempt to write a post that is simultaneously witty, silly, descriptive and profound - but I think this post will be what it will be, with no apologies for emo, boringitude or rampant nonsense.

My Grand Perspective has changed dramatically in the past year. Perhaps you can tell, gentle fans, that something deeply confounding, lovely, secret, unfathomable and utterly unexpected has happened to me. I'm not interested in attempting to describe it because I'm quite sure that I'll fail to do it justice. There are only so many words in the English language, and all of them are too banal. I'm sure you understand.

When I was 16, my best friend M and I took a trip to the outer banks. At midnight on our first day there, we decided to stroll in the warm breeze over the dunes to the shore. I remember eagerly looking for the moon, not finding it and being unreasonably disappointed. But, as we crested the grassy rolling dunes that had been blocking our view of the ocean, I forgot to breathe. The moon was setting (or rising?) just off of center. It was as if the usual distance between the earth and our beloved satellite had been reduced by 3/4. I could see every detail. I truly believed with unalloyed certainty for a handful of brief seconds that, on that night, if we set out in a boat and followed the scintillating path the moon made on the seething waves (and they crest and break, even at night! disturbing? comforting? ...?), we'd sail off the edge of the earth and tumble amidst the stars and droplets until the end of time.

γνῶθι σεαυτόν - the title of this post - is my goal for this year, and I begin 2009 accepting the fact that I will not accomplish it... But it's the first time I've actively sought to try. Beyond the concept as a cliche intellectual proposition is a journey that is private and perfectly unique. I continue on this journey, and I will try not to wander so much - unless the wandering is a function of the path; I think mine is more of a moonpath. I hope I am astute enough.