Post #199300 by Thomas on Mon, Nov 21, 2005 12:30 PM

I think there are two sometimes competing impulses at work. One is to delve "down" deeply into an area of endeavor. BK's original post urges this, and very effectively. The other impulse is not "vertical" like this, but rather horizontal. It is the impulse to broaden, and draw connections. This impulse is (currently, at least) dominant in me. Tiki is a "connector," a "point of departure" for me in many ways, and my enthusiasm for it often leads me "horizontally" to more generally tropical themes, or even somewhat eccentric things, like a notion I have currently to design our living room like an archaic fantasy submarine lair a'la Captain Nemo.

All this being said, I understand why at some point, the tendency to drift horizontally has to be delimited, and urgings to "dig down" and get "back to the roots" will always be appropriate here. This is, after all, "Tiki Central," not "Tiki Peripheral."