"How small a thought it takes... to fill a whole life..."

The current song's shrill lyrics echoed and ascended all around me, resounding truth; precisely the very truth that I had always lived by. In fact, I was closer now to this truth than usual. I was now *especially* on THE PATH. My "Personal Legend", as they put it in The Alchemist. This Path was led by the hand of this aforementioned truth...

I was spending my summer in San Francisco at an on-the-whim internship. This was the only internship I had ever applied to in my life, and coincidentally also the one that I turned out to be needing the most. I had let my intuition do the work and direct my attention to the proper place. So I was now in my summer dorm, listening to the dark psytrance song, Para Halu - Big Trees Talk, Old Trees Walk. The line above originally had come from a fugue musical piece; Steve Reich - Proverb.

And of this lyric, I thought... and still do think, how true it is.  How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life.

Picture the following: A pervasive thought, sparked by uncontrollable intrigue, fills ones mind... but no- this is no ordinary type of intrigue. This brand of intrigue is the stuff that precedes the manifestation of the happenings which make up Life. This is an Intrigue which has the power to generate dynamic intent, driving one to pinpoint their attention entirely on a deeply loved thought or concept and proceed to devote them self completely to all that surrounds it. This manifestation becomes powerful enough to lead one to some pretty amazing places. One might move them self to a different group of friends; to a different state; to a different career path; on a new expedition through their mind... this kind of intrigue has the great capability to fill a life with experiences never even conceived of before.  Powerful intent manifestation is at work.

This is the story of my life lived thus far.

I've gone down many paths that have converged and diverged numerous times into a bigger, more macro-scale path- we all have, right? I suppose that some of us just think about it more often than others. I can't help but notice that I've gone down many paths in which my choices were made at a subconscious level, yet were deliberately precise all the same. These intuitive paths... Ones existing through obscure and esoteric subcultures and countercultures, at that.

Paths of the internet.

Here is where some of these paths become a bit strange:

Each path has been lined with an intense following. I'm talking about communities in which at least some (usually many) individuals have chosen, or better yet, have had some unknown force calling them, to devote literally all of their time and energy to whatever topics that culture or group is centered around. Some people might see this type of behavior as passionate; some might see it as insane; some might look upon it with amusement; at worst some might see it as pathetic.

I think that  it all depends on the level to which the obsession goes, and the positive applications the individual uses for the obsession in their day to day lives or long-term goals.

The problem for me in the past has been that a lot of these topics have been things that don't exactly lead to huge life opportunities (but oh- they have all the same)! Bands, singers, songs, television shows, news anchors, electronic pets! Where can a life devoted and targeted on only one of any of those things (one specific band for example), at least long-term, really take somebody? Some of these topics have been broad and mainstream enough to be well-understood even in the midst of those… non-connoisseurs, but other times the interest of intrigue was so obscure; so awkward, that a individual merely sharing the thing with an outsider would yield a thoroughly confused response.

I am happy to say that these paths of mine have converged into one grandiose path that I now am able to cite that I have and have always had a long-term passion for; not just an obsession. And as it turns out, I have been following it all along without even knowing until the past five years.

However, I still must say that if there is one title that I'd truly deserve to earn in life through years of experience, I would be a Connoisseur Intrigue Enthusiast.

More on these paths later.