The time has come for honest reflection on the year(s) past and decisions for what’s ahead. With an eye to the etymology of “decide” — which stems from the Latin decidere, “to cut off,” a root it shares with “homicide” and “suicide” — I am led to consider the necessity of excision.

Oliver Burkeman poignantly expresses it this way:

Any finite life — even the best one you could possibly imagine — is therefore a matter of ceaselessly waving goodbye to possibility… Since finitude defines our lives… living a truly authentic life — becoming fully human — means facing up to that fact. It’s only by facing our finitude that we can step into a truly authentic relationship with life.”

With that sober liberating thought in mind, I have decided to take a step away from some expressions of my life as I’ve lived it. Amongst other decisions, beginning January 31st, 2022, my personal Facebook page and those I manage (desert odyssey & Victimae), will be deactivated. Nothing else changes substantially.

desert odyssey continues in similar yet different ways, but I do not want to perpetuate any expression by default or familiarity, but by design and intentionally. What is excised is striving. What is gained is freedom. Please stay in contact, not via the impersonal space of social media but the personal space of intimate connection.