epiphany

What's in a name . . .

You may be wondering, "Why 'epiphany?' What does that have to do with anything, and why in particular would Jonathan choose it for his blog's name?" The answer's two-fold yet pretty basic:

First, the Day of Epiphany (also called Twelfth Night) comes twelve days after Christmas. According to church tradition, the magi brought their gifts to Jesus on Epiphany. If I remember correctly, those of Orthodox tradition reserve their gift-giving until that day. Additionally (and more important for the naming of my page), twelve days after Christmas is my birthday. I suppose I could have called the page "Twelfth Night," but that would seem to demand a certain amount of Shakespearean content. Shakespeare's interesting, but I don't plan to major on him here.

Secondly, the common understanding of the word "epiphany" involves a sudden or enlightening idea. I tend to do a lot of thinking and figured a blog would be a good way to get some of my ideas written down rather than just floating around in my head. Writing will force me to communicate the thoughts clearly, and feedback/comments will help sharpen the ideas. Playing ideas off one another often helps generate new ideas. Hopefully some of the bantering will lead to genuine epiphanies in our lives: thought without action is less than a dream.

So, because of the birthday tie-in and the inherent funkiness of the word, I've been wanting to use "epiphany" as the name of something for a few years. As an undergrad in film school, I planned to call my someday production company "Epiphany Films." Since the company hasn't materialized, I figure that I might as well get some use out of the name!