After my post on dragons, I ended up talking with one of my awesome coworkers about Odin.  The thing I like the most about the Odin myth is that he gave up an eye for wisdom.  For reasons that I never fully understood, this always resonated with me and I’ve thought about it often.

As I went down that path, I was reminded of one of my favorite poems (In the Darkest of All Forests), in one of my favorite books (Armorica), from my favorite trilogy (Riverrun) by my favorite author: S. P. Somtow.  I’m not going to analyze this a lot, except to say that poem doesn’t stand alone – it sits within a context (the series of poems, Tales of the Wandering Hero; the story, Armorica; the trilogy, Riverrun; and my life at each juncture I’ve read it) and acts as an anchor to that context for me.  It is bookmarked so that I can unfold that context in a few short verses and remember my own personal search for wisdom. Continue reading Sacrificing an Eye for Wisdom →