My new name

It was with great amusement the other day that I rediscovered one of my earlier monikers, get ready to have a chuckle: The Joyous Scholar. I've changed it quite a few times, mostly because I have never liked aliases; there was a time, until I was a college sophomore, when I was serious about the theatre, and part of the reason I left it all behind was because I wanted to find out more about me, not other people, not assumed identities. The thing about the moniker is that it's rather odd to have to name oneself. Usually names are give to us. Like a native American tradition of adding names on to a person according to what they'd lived through and how, or what they'd accomplished - so that as time went on, the name would get longer... the name was always given, even if it reflected the person's actual deeds.
But the time has come for me to change my moniker, even though I really like e'clair. The only reason I am changing it is because it comes out all wonky on some sites, with many symbols in the place of the apostrophe.
So, I am going to use John Ruskins's old pen name, Kata Phusin. People who know me will probably know why the Kata isn't too much of a stretch, nor are the theological associations with the name. Kατά φύση is the Greek for "according to nature". According to The Life of John Ruskin, he'd chosen the pen name because he'd read Aristotle, and "No phrase would have better expressed his point of view, that of commonsense extended by experience, and confirmed by the appeal to matters of fact, rather than to any authority, or tradition, or committee of taste, or abstract principles." In short, John Ruskin's approach demonstrates Socratic, critical thinking, which I so enjoy, and reflects that which makes the most sense - not blindly following certain modes, or working against one's nature, or the nature of the world. What is natural may directly overlap with tradition, so long as tradition is doing what is right, or, to borrow from a recent post, what is Orphic.
Part of my life goal is to take those elements from the culture I am living in that are most natural (i.e. extant, even if dormant; finding the roots, which are longer lasting, and life giving) and revive them in the present (which is by default Western, and I understand that insofar as once upon a time I hailed from there). I feel the moniker speaks to that. My working definition of the "natural" is to bring out the best in something, to revive the plant and watch it bloom, in a new way, in the present.
So, this moniker is fine, and Romantic enough - given that I love poetry, combined with a healthy measure of the rational, through critical thinking, and living with (not in!) ideals. The only thing it is missing is humour, because it is never any fun when I take myself too seriously. Ah! But on the other hand, I wonder how many people will think it is a real name? That is kind of funny!
Well, let me know what you think. Wishing you a fabulous day.

Elements: doily: pugly pixel; bird: graphics fairy;

paper: maybemej; ribbon, needlework, frame: minitoko.