I wondered whether to give the Greek for the title of this blog, but it seemed both fitting and not-so-fitting with the rest of the blog, for these reasons:
It's such an old saying. Plato used it. Giving the title in Greek would mean I'm attempting to go back in time. Back to the beginning, back to square one. In addition, it would show I'm also attempting to work on the fundamental aspects of myself. Just like how the Greek ancient civilization was the foundation for the Roman civilization (barring of course everything prior to the Greeks... )
Yet, giving the title in Greek would, of course, be pretentious. Who speaks Greek? Big headed writers (ahem *T.S. Eliot* ahem), papers for impressing people in ivory towers. Attempting to work on the fundamental aspects of myself is an exercise in simplicity, an exercise in trying to work on the simple actions of my day-to-day living, rather than focusing on all the complex situations I'm in.
How did I get here?
Friends, I want to change my life. And I've realized the only way to do that isn't to make some elaborate scheme. It's by working on all the things my little errors. Not my big errors.
I've realized that all the big, bad things happening in my life is all just the result of little errors that, by themselves, don't seem to be so wrong, but actually mix together to make up the big mess I'm in (that sounds dramatic... it's not really that big of a mess, but I've been blessed with the clarity to see my life isn't going in the direction I want it to go).
So, ironically... I'm going to deconstruct myself and focus on all the little pieces that make the whole. Kind of gestalt, really... and even more so... kind of like, Derrida. It's ironic because I don't consider myself a strong postmodernist thinker.
---- An actual life event:
So this past weekend I went to UCCC hosted by the UC Davis Newman Center. Awesome speakers and great people. It was awesome, and God really spoke to me through it. I learned a lot about what I need to do now, and really, the big message of the weekend for me was: Aaron, yes, you need to work on the fundamental aspects of yourself. You need to change your seemingly isolated and simple behaviors, because they're, in the long run, hurting you.
It's like playing a negative expectation game. In the long run, you'll come out the loser.
I don't want to play a negative expectation game anymore, guys.
Happy Lent everyone!
