Wednesday, January 13, 2010

New Semester, New Class, Same Old Song and Dance

To prevent the Web's growing Blog bog from past semesters of Dr. Sexson's classes. I have decided to continue on with the blog I began a short year ago for Oral Traditions.

Why you ask? We cause frankly I quite like the blog I wrote for that class and reading over some of my old posts helped me get back into the Thinking/Doing mindset required for a Sexson blog. Also, it seems from the first day of class that much of Oral Traditions will transmit over to this semester. And of course because there are so many familiar faces in this class from the previous one.

Funny thing about using blogger. It seems that each semester I figure out easier ways to streamline my blog. For instance, the "blog list" tool makes following all y'all from my own blog much easier. I like easy like Lt. Aldo Raine likes "killing Naatzis" (sorry had that movie stuck in my head all day). Second I figured out how to add a title picture to my blog another cool little feature.

Since this class is about "Epiphanies" I figured I better start the class off with my best early-semester, non Wikied definition of epiphany. The title picture to my blog best outlines my personal definition of "Epiphany." A moment of clarity to which the ultimate purpose remains a bit hazy. I can remember every last detail of the moment that picture was taken. I was standing on the north side of the Maurikopfle (a peak in Austria) just below the summit before the final pitch of our climb. I remember my breath dancing in a white haze in front of me with each exhalation. I remember the silence interrupted only by the crunch of snow under my feet. And I remember the prickly chill that ran up my spine, skipping across each vertebrate and spreading through my limbs to the tips of my fingers and toes. The chill subsided only in my mind as if to tell me "pay attention dummy, this exact moment is very important, don't forget it." And I haven't.

However, the peculiar thing is I couldn't tell you why that moment was so important in my life, I simply know it is. It could be telling me that I must never forget my love of mountains and snow and adventure and that I must pursue that love unwaveringly. It could be telling me to be conscious of some higher power that molded the scene before me. It could be a reminder of how lucky I was to have the things I'm thankful for. Or it could be something I haven't even thought of yet. What i do know is, that moment on that mountain remains deeply important to me, it was my epiphany, or at least one of them. So important, I can still look at my cheesy pose in that digital image and be ripped right back into the smells, the sounds, the sights, and the thoughts of that afternoon on the mountain side.

It was important...yes. It was an epiphany...I'm sure of it. What it meant...hell if I know. But maybe through the course of the semester i'll find out.

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