In the grand old tradition of welcoming the New Year, I hereby roll out the red carpet for 2021, and *ahem* restore balance to the Universe by restarting my blog. This might well be the fifteenth time that I’ve categorically decided to commit myself to writing regularly. And a brand new year is just the right kind of kick in the pants to persuade me to jump in! On a more serious note, I believe there are good reasons for making the attempt, even when the goal seems unachievable.
First and foremost is the fitting cliché that life is about the journey, not the destination. The relentless pursuit of an ideal does not assume that we would ultimately reach it; rather, the ideal shines brightly as a beacon of hope, a call to action. We get satisfaction in the ‘how’ not the ‘what’. We seek the thrill of experience, not accomplishment.
Second, I imagine writing as a form of self-expression that records memories I can look back on fondly on some future date. I have always enjoyed seeing myself through the lens of my old posts — few and far in-between as they might have been — and marveling at how I was a completely different person not so many years ago. Finding these fragments of who I was and stitching them together is a way of finding my own identity. Your identity is not who you are, but the sum total of everyone you have ever been.
And finally, I enjoy wholesome debates (but not those limited to 280 characters!) and cherish the possibility of my blog sparking interesting ideas and healthy discussions.
I leave you with this apt quote from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time fantasy novels.
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come to pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
— Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World