Perpetual Ruminations

Thursday

I have a new title for my journal, one that fits well and still holds a similar meaning. When I first started my journal I wanted a name that indicated the broad array of the stuff I write here. How's that for a colorful word, stuff; I could have just used this simple word to name my blog, it covers about everything and anything that may be contained in these pages. But, I wanted something with more depth.

Abysmal was used for the title for quite some time, but then it was brought to my attention that this was thought to mean dark and dismal. With some research the definition was clearly given in Dictionary.Com as 1: of or like an abyss; immeasurably deep or great and 2: extremely or hopelessly bad or severe.

The first meaning was what I wanted, and what I thought the rest of the title clearly depicted this. But, one would have to read through the title and give it some thought to understand this. While many readers do, and a title such as the original would catch someone's attention, I also understood how many readers would see the word abysmal and skip past the item, thinking it was dark and dreary. After some thought, I renamed my journal, but wasn't satisfied with it. So, I changed it again, using abyssal to indicate the great depth and endless boundaries of the human mind.

I had also changed the rest of the title and thought it worked pretty well. But, it seems the two words are often misunderstood, and again someone informed me that they thought the title depicted dismal and depressive reading. Not really any fault at all except for the usage of our language, many words and terms have various meanings apart from their true meanings. What I mean is, individuals associate different meanings to words and terms than what they actually mean, whether it's because they sound alike, or are close to the same, or just because they don't actually know the real meaning. Add to that feelings, and many words and phrases can mean many different things to many different people. For example, an abyss is deep and immeasurable, but that would also mean it's dark, so to some abyssal means deep and dark. I wanted the deep, but my writing is anything but dark.

Today I changed the title once again, trying to choose wording that indicates the unfathomable depths of the human mind, the ongoing process of thought that constantly floods one's conscience, and name my journal appropriately. No matter how carefully one chooses, however, there will still be some who don't understand the intended meaning, but I think I have this nailed down pretty well. Although I'm sure it will be misunderstood by some, at least it won't be mistaken for anything dark and dismal.

Now, with a new title in place, one that clearly depicts ongoing, vast thoughts, I suppose I should write something deep and meaningful. But, that's not always the case, is it? Although the human mind is without bounds or borders, filled with perpetual thought, sometimes it's just silly stuff that washes ashore and needs to get plucked from the waves to clear the way for more serious ruminations. Perhaps I should just name this journal for what is found here -- Stuff!