When I finally earned my Ph.D, a person stylizing himself as a citizen of the "Real World" (I still haven't figured out where, or what, the "Real World" is; then again, I'm a Classicist, not a philosopher), asked me what seems to be the inevitable, inane, insipid question for occasions of this sort:
"So what are you going to do with that?"
"I think I'll put it on my wall," was my blithe response.
I'd fielded that question so many times before that I had come to a point where I either had to skilfully craft a pithy reply, or run the risk of developing an insecurity complex. I opted for the former, finding it more entertaining (mentally healthier, too) than the latter.
"Put it on my wall" was also more accurate, and more comprehensible, than "I don't know." As it was, "I don't know" sprung from my failure to see the point of the question, not from a cluelessness on my part as to my professional destination (more later on "destination" vs. "journey"). Not that anyone claiming to be from the "Real World" had either a hope or concern of grasping that.
In the context of The Epiphany, however, "What are you going to do with that?" is not just a question. It's the question.
After all, once you've had an Epiphany, what do you do? Sign up for Epiphany Class? See a Revelation Specialist? Buy yourself a copy of Epiphanies for Dummies?
"Live into the moment."
A favorite quote of a friend of mine.
And a clear starting point.
In the wake of the epiphany comes a powerful, creative, wild force that has its well-spring, its epicenter, in your own understanding. It is a force terrifying and exhilerating, breath-taking and resuscitating, mind-numbing and mind-opening, deadly and revitalizing.
"Catharsis" only begins to get at its essence. This force doesn't simply bring your understanding back to life. It causes you to reconsider, rethink, recalibrate, restructure, rebuild everything you thought you knew, everything you thought you understood.
It is up to you to harness this power.
You're the only one who can.
As for how I harnessed the power of my Epiphany's Wake, my next post will tell.
Part of the answer is right in front of you.