Goodbye Anno Equus

This was, in the end, a blog with a built-in expiration date.  It began on January 31st, 2014 (the official first day of the equine year) and ends on this last official day.  

Onward with the Year of the Goat.

I think it's smart to have solid deadlines in place.  Shows like Breaking Bad and The Wire had the right idea.  One must capture a certain amount of synergy, and know when to conclude things at the right time.  Nothing lasts forever, and the avowed goal for this blog was simple enough: provide a space for me to write about everything and anything within the confines of this Chinese zodiacal year.  I have done that, 30 times.


It was, without a doubt, a most eventful span of time for me, beginning in the musty, ancient stacks of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and ending today with a view of the mountains in Daejeon, South Korea (with stops along the way in New England, New Jersey/New York, and Thailand).  

Last day of this Horse Year:
looking at the mountains in Daejeon

I applied for, and failed to get a Fulbright (during one of the snowiest winters in the U.S.), finished a CELTA certification course in Bangkok during the hot season, and in the end, moved into this central city in my third country, enduring a very mild winter (as blizzards raged far away yet again in the United States).  Thailand moved from a messy democracy to messy martial law. 

As Horse Years go, I'd rank it high for turbulence, although perhaps they all skew that way.  I was born in 1966 (isn't that automatically turbulent ... the pain of birth?), and 12 years later, in 1978, was embroiled in the hormonal angst of junior high school in Acton, Massachusetts.  I don't remember much specifically turbulent about 1990, other than toiling away for long hours and low pay as a journalist for the Monadnock Ledger in Peterborough, New Hampshire, but in 2002, I had settled into the far north of Thailand, in Mae Hong Son, and was negotiating the tricky, emotional terrain of a young relationship with my soon-to-be wife Tan (this has, I'm glad to say, flowered into a long and happy marriage).  Perhaps rocky roads are the way of things during one's particular year.  

To be clear, my ending this blog doesn't mean I'm calling a halt on writing. There are other things I'm working on, and I'm already considering a new blog sometime in the near future, which would use movies as catalysts for writing.  Not a review site, per se, of which there are plenty, but a space devoted to thoughts and themes of the world and my own life, provoked by the movies I've watched (I am a well-traveled  and very well-versed cinephile).  There would have to be a specific deadline, or goal, with that as well.

There is some linkage to the larger idea of "quests" with all of this, and I've been thinking about this subject a great deal recently, provoked by the book "The Happiness of Pursuit," given to me by Tan, which is devoted to the idea of developing quests that bring purpose into life.

Quests are not just ways to pass the time.  They are larger out-of-the-ordinary projects with planning and timelines, which give life extra meaning and energize people into creative and determined action. They often lead to some fascinating ideas, like not speaking for an entire year, hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail, or even photographing abandoned movie houses in Southeast Asia). 

An Early Bucket List (before the term ever existed)

The idea of a quest is not new to me.  As I read the book, I remembered as far back as 1992, as a 25-year-old, when I formulated a list of 50 goals that I wanted to tick off by the end of my life.  These included a broad swath of desires, ideas as simple as leaving the newspaper at which I was working and as grandiose as traveling to every country in the world or finally learning to play the piano (something I attempted in Bangkok).  There was even the rather noble and humanitarian idea of dissuading at least one person from committing suicide (as of yet, not accomplished).

Even before and since compiling that list, there have been larger-than-life stimulating missions, including the month-long post-college road trip that I took with two friends that circumnavigated the United States and Canada, my sporadic attempts pre-Thailand to visit every baseball stadium in the major leagues (this quest is, unfortunately, on semi-permanent hold), and the 316-mile solo bicycle trip I undertook after graduating with an MFA from American University, along bicycle paths from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  This last one sticks in my mind as the most difficult, because I accomplished it on my own.  

It seems I am not averse to shaking things up and embarking on creative, challenging endeavors.  Indeed, it would seem to be integral to my nature.  Even now, I'm contemplating what my next quest could be.

Annos Equus (the actual year of the horse) will return in 12 years (February 17, 2026) and if I still have the energy and the inclination (and the internet hasn't burnt out along with blogger.com), I may very well return to this space, re-read these old columns, and continue on my merry way.

But in the meantime, it's over and out.  Thanks for reading, and safe travels and best of health to all of you in Anno Caprae.