I guess the best place to start is with some explanation - but I have a habit of using too many words, of too many syllables, to say the simplest of things. So, with so much I want to say, I'm going to attempt to keep it brief and to the point - Q & A style.
What's AEON?
It's a journal - in both the 'personal diary' and the 'published magazine' sense.
What's it about?
I hope it will be a forum to share contributions from people - myself and others, past and present - that illustrate lives, years, days, or even moments, that have been lived to their fullest extent through a deliberate immersion in, and awareness of, 'now'.
But why?
Because I feel that in a world where it is increasingly easy to become absorbed in, even obsessed by, the virtual or digital realms; the media spin or advertising hype; the materialist or consumerist drive; there is a genuine value in the 'real'; the 'true'; the 'simple'.
Aren't there some major contradictions looming here?
Oh Yeah! Big time. I'm banging on about Real Life - in a virtual journal. I'm promoting an archive (the past), for potential readers (the future), whilst implying a superior validity for living 'in the moment' (the present). Trust me - I'm aware of the irony, but I'm blundering on regardless. Deal with it.
So what's it actually going to include?
Well, it's clearly a work in progress - but hopefully there'll be stories, photographs, drawings, quotations, some philosophy, some humour, some questions, some answers. A bit of this and a bit of that. You tell me! Please ..?
Can you give me any examples?
Plenty - assuming I find time to put them together, I'm currently thinking about including pieces on some or all of the following:
Thoreau's 'Walden'. Because I've just finished reading it for the first time.
My 'surf-trip' a couple of week's back. A week of doing very little - very intensively.
The Tao Te Ching and Taoism generally. At least, as I currently understand it.
Beer, bread, cheese & pickles. Because I want to run a 'Bar' that serves nothing else. (Oh, all right - maybe some coffee and mineral water too. Happy now?)
Less is More. Just because it is. So.
Selfishness - but not entirely the Ayn Rand type, more the Richard Dawkins model!
Water. No idea what exactly. Just feel compelled to include it in the list.
And (hopefully) any number of other things that people might send in for inclusion?
How do I make a contribution?
Simply make a comment (it'll come to me for moderation first) or send an email to aneternityofnow@gmail.com. Thanks!
