Who can fathom the abyss?

What follows is an old reflection piece, never published. Written not long after disasters in New Orleans and my personal life, over two years later I find that I still agree with its Stoic message of temperance and flexibility in the face catastrophe and change.

Aesthetically, it’s a bit… how do you say? Emersonianesque. Or wannabe-Emerson. At the time I was really enamored by his writing-style. I still am, but I’m learning to constrain my pen a bit. Reading the Economist and working Ben Paarmann’s scathing editorial remarks during the behind-the-scenes work on CyberChaikhana have really helped me tone down the flamboyance. — CS 12.06.2008