Epiphany!

My epiphany is not Joycean, though I am, in a broad sense of the term, a literary Modernist. It was not an epiphany that inspired me to create this blog; truthfully, it has been a long time coming. I have gradually been drawn out of my net-phobia by friends who have successful and compelling blogs like Mommy, Ph.D. and Stuff as Dreams are Made on. Not that I'm promising the same, mind you! But here I am, jumping on the blog-wagon. Rather, I am writing on the day of the liturgical celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany. Had I started this blog yesterday, as I intended, I wouldn't have to be so legalistic about it! But I still feel justified in claiming today as Epiphany.

Being as it is an "introductory" blog, I feel that a bit of background isn't totally out of order, though I will try not to repeat myself on my profile. Epiphany has been special to me since I was a little girl in New Orleans. Although we weren't Catholic, the culture was, and still attached significance to January 6, the Feast of the Three Kings, or, alternately "Little Christmas" or Petit Noël--albeit small significance. As the beginning of the Mardi Gras season, Epiphany was also (more importantly!) the first day King Cakes could be sold! I mourn for the day the bakeries decided to sell King Cakes year 'round. It's not that I didn't want to eat them other times of the year, it just didn't seem right somehow.

Since I have become Catholic, Epiphany is more significant as the real, liturgical end of the Christmas season. This year, I really didn't get into the Christmas spirit until, well, Christmas. It crept up on me, somehow, and I wasn't feeling very festive. When Christmas ended, I wanted to buy Christmas music, I found myself humming Christmas carols. Now, it's officially time to throw out the tree and pack up the lights & ornaments until next year. And to go to the Mass that celebrates the racial inclusiveness of Christianity. As St. Paul said, the Messiah isn't just for Jews anymore (loose paraphrase). There's a profundity about that that I didn't appreciate until I became Catholic (a little over 2 years ago now). It's diminished somewhat by the toddler squirming on my lap, but still profound. Tonight, in particular, the question put to us was, so there's no Star to follow. . . So why (pourquoi "for what," if you will) are we gathered here? What, indeed. A very personal question. Perhaps I'll return to it sometime. I'm not sure we know each other well enough yet!

"The" Epiphany is the end of a journey, but a theological beginning; "an" epiphany, revisiting the Joyce reference for now, is typically the end of a story, but the beginning of the unknown that is beyond the borders of the story. So I begin my blog, if not exactly on Epiphany, at least by writing about Epiphany. Watch for my blogs to become less self-conscious; it's definitely something I'm striving for.