Blog Entry 101

This post happens to be the 101st I've entered since the blog's inception in May 2010. The number 101 has echoes for Americans. In this country, 101 is universally recognized as a beginning, a beginner level, something simple, even easy. However, little about writing a blog allows a simple-minded approach that "101" implies. In my case, this blog is an odyssey whose voyage is the exploration of themes, ideas, notions, and whatever else comes into my head on a given day. There's nothing -- nothing -- "101" about this journey, except for that first moment when my ship set sail for a home unseen for years.

There is one other significance, a personal one, for 101. It's the number of the federal highway that parallels the Pacific Ocean from Canada to Los Angeles. For me, reaching the Pacific has always, always been enchanting.

Whenever I express this emotion to Californians, they just laugh. This is a tale they hear from Americans who want something magical from California. It doesn't always work out that way. I know: my experience includes disappointments, personal shipwrecks, disaster, mystic

ism, love, and regeneration. Yet, to this day, the allure about the West Coast's 101 remains tenacious.

The iconic images of Ulysses' ship and the owl (symbols of Athena and wisdom) are from Baltimore's Walters Art Museum.