Wednesday, December 24, 2008

"Errant Epiphany"?

Why have I decided to start a blog? Let me tell you it is something that I've put off (and it has "put me off") for quite some time. I never really understood why people did it. To brag maybe, to share their goings ons with their friends and family (although the advent of myspace, facebook and twitter have eclipsed that), delusions of grandeur ("Lots of people will read this! I'm gonna change the world!"), etc., etc... Well okay, I've had my guesses why people did it, but none of them seemed like good reasons. At the end of the day, the truth for 99% of bloggers is that they're doing it for themselves. Some sort of self-gratification. I'll be honest here: for me, it's no different.

To understand my blog's purpose, let's first disect the title of this blog, "Errant Epiphany". According to Merriam Webster:

errant
1: traveling or given to traveling errant
2 a: straying outside the proper path or bounds b: moving about aimlessly or irregularly c: behaving wrongly d: fallible

epiphany
1 capitalized : January 6 observed as a church festival in commemoration of the coming of the Magi as the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles or in the Eastern Church in commemoration of the baptism of Christ
2: an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine being
3 a (1): a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2): an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3): an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b: a revealing scene or moment

I'm going to go with errant's definition 2a or 2b (although 2c or 2d might work as well at times), and with any of epiphany's permutations under definition 3. The idea is that this blog is really about making some sense out of what I encounter in this life. Maybe, as part of the process of writing down my thoughts, I can untangle them. Sort of like meditation-while-writing. A "pensieve" for you Harry Potter fans.

Now, I'm not a writer - nor do I play one on TV - so if you decide to get your vouyeristic fix by reading my blog, you will have to be prepared for the occasional grammatical error and punctuation mistake. Proceed at your own risk. Which reminds me, I'm not just a hard-working professional who loves his wife, children and pets - I'm also a guy who has no problem admitting that swearing, drinking, enjoying sex, watching horror movies and listening to "the devil's music" are all part of his life too. For those that know me well, I can be quite blunt - sometimes to a fault - so consider yourself warned.

If you do continue on, I do sincerely hope that my musings might be of some benefit, that they might get you to think outside your normal comfort space a bit. But again, you are not the reason for this blog, and I make no promises that every entry is going to be life-changing. On the contrary, there might very well be seemingly insignificant posts like how mad I was at the store the other day. But hey, I can promise you that it will all be real.

Let's give this thing a shot.

1 comment:

  1. A good way to start the new year. I have been thinking about starting up my blog again as well. I find it is a good way to "think out loud."

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