| Hello! This is another one of those late night, last minute letters in which I’m encountering a palpable wonder as I write these alphabetic symbols to share my thoughts with you. I was conversing with a poet this evening who rarely shares her words with others and tonight I’m particularly aware of how comfortable these large-audience, late night writing sessions have become. Today, I’m just excited by the opportunity to share on this scale that this crazy thing called the internet offers. Nerves related to the writing of words haven’t crossed my mind in a long while. Not that this arrangement of letters is spectacular or anything, it just feels comfortably mine these days. With less than twenty-four hours left in 2018, my mind’s naturally gone to looking back at our last lap around the sun. I began this year with my soul left in the fetal position by the sudden, tragic sort of end to a relationship for which I had very different expectations. I look back in amazement at the healing that’s happened since, at the curiosity that’s returned to my life and the zest with which I once again greet the day. With time and acceptance, the resiliency of the human spirit is quite stunning. 2018 was also a year of evolution for me. My perspective, priorities, and beliefs have probably shifted more in this year than any since I was bitten by the wrong mosquito at sixteen. Fresh out of a ten-day Vipassana meditation course this November—the most reality-quaking ten-days of my life to date—I felt a peaceful pointlessness towards all endeavors and lacked the wind in my sails to pen much of anything. The ways we live seemed a game in which we’re all conditioned to notice and derive meaning from certain details of an almost endless expanse of perception. In those philosophical doldrums, I realized that words and ideas can never fully convey the truth—all are mere perspectives, a take on the totality of capital-T Truth. And as our perspectives are always changing (and mine had shifted so greatly in that meditation retreat), I wondered if penning perspective of any sort was just a giant waste of time. As the days of December rolled by, though, I’ve rediscovered the utility and beauty and connection in words and ideas and perspectives. I’ve come back to a love for this site, for the words I get to share, and smile at the paradox of the ability of these trivial words to convey their own triviality. Tonight I write to you from Flagstaff, Arizona. In uber cheap fashion, I’m splitting rent for a bedroom in an apartment with my younger brother Reid while I work on a handful of different projects this winter and spring. Reid’s a senior here at Northern Arizona University, where I also graduated from four and a half years ago. While most siblings would eventually proceed to blows or strangle each other in such a situation, Reid and I forged a pretty strong bond pedaling bicycles across the United States together, sharing a two-man tent for seventy-six nights. In comparison, an entire bedroom feels quite spacious. Perhaps because I was born on New Year’s Day, I have a more acute awareness for spaceship Earth’s completion of a lap around the sun. In less than a day’s time, I’ll be beginning my twenty-seventh go round. Since barely squeaking by on lap sixteen, each lap since has felt more like a bonus, or unexpected gift. Here’s to another go round! Wishing you a good one. With love & stoke, Ethan P.S. Below there’s a stunningly shot, four-minute-long WONDER WANDER 2018 Highlight Reel and it’s totally worth a watch. Hoping to host another in 2019 (and will keep you in the loop)! |
