There is a certain inevitability to this site given how suddenly and dramatically the world has changed, how e-media has offered new and different audiences for whatever shared writing, and my own drift of aging consciousness ready to ‘go on record’ about a host of potentially interesting or significant ideas and perspectives. To quote Shakespeare again, “The readiness is all.”
Why the site title “To thine own self be true…”? Historically and culturally, Hamlet has had a profound influence on the minds and sensibilities of many, particularly the young. Not only did I study this play in grade 12, but for decades taught it and noted its effects on other young people looking for something thoughtfully heroic or spiritually uplifting and inspirational.
I could just as easily have called this site ‘Thereadinessisall.ca’ given how much I have similarly quoted or come back to it as much as “To thine own self be true”. These quotes have been great life-anchors and have been for many others over the years in widely different and crucial circumstances or contexts.
The longer I live, though, the more I become aware of why it is basic and necessary to be true to oneself. In a world where it is often difficult these daze to find anything resembling certainty, who or what can you rock-bottomly count on to some degree? Whose life and life experiences matter most of all to you? Through whose eyes do you experience the days, others, and the world? Who, of all people, would you be most disappointed to let down? Who do you have to answer to the most? Who do you know best and want to know more about relative to values and beliefs? At the end of your life, who is the one person who mattered most of all to you in your life? (c.f., 1st entry that follows for more thoughts on this.)
Certain facts and unavoidable answers to the above questions enabled me to make my choice as to who most mattered in my life, and why I have lived the way I wanted and chose to live. Seen that way, “The readiness is all” may well basically reflect the readiness to be true to one’s self, one’s ideas, convictions, values, and grounding perspectives. The result can only be honesty with self (and others) and the possibility of living an authentic/true life, true to one self and whatever personal core.
The Site Entries
“The quality of your happiness depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”–Marcus Aurelius
These personal expressions will vary somewhat (i.e., prose, poetry) and may include things I’ve written at other times over the years; so they are not necessarily appearing in the chronological order in which they were written. There will, however, be a connecting, developing thread between entries when read from the earliest to the latest. (*So whenever a reader jumps into the latest entry, he or she will be joining this process blog in media res.*March 2014/looking back, this thematically-threaded series lasted until Oct 2012, when I gave myself permission to write more freely and relevantly to the days of given entries. There is far more variety of topics since that shift. However, it is interesting to go back to see how I began this voyage of consciousness dealing, foundationally, with the “most basic life-topics of all.’ There are many basic insights and observations in the first three months of prose probes. Each entry, in any case, expresses what I have perceived to be the truth about some topic.
Ever the teacher, it is my hope, though, that there will be something positive in the points and experiences I convey enough to be of some use to you in perspective-ing your own developing consciousness about how you feel about and experience life yourself. Thanks for tuning in and reading.
All personal selections entry-date-copyrighted by the author.