.given that the etymology is uncertain, with regards to how the name Narcissus was derived... the suffix is uncertain, predating Greek (-ισσος)... so i borrowed from Pliny the Elder... ναρκάω.. narkaoo... narcotics... fits the bill: i grow numb... well... hence me borrowing this to befit the antonym: more the act of being, rather growing, since being can also encompass shrinking... but still using the predating Greek suffix to construct a name... έμψυχοσισσος: empsychosissos... the one who averted a Kantian schematic advancement... and rather than falling in love with his image... said: Narcissus... now peer away from the lake, and into either the sea, or into a river. - and Narcissus could not find what he saw in the clarity of the calm lake... thus έμψυχοσισσος said... i peered into my shadow, and saw, beyond the visage, the animate past, present and future, of my thought... i took my thought as my visage... and my visage, as what i ought to not think about, for with thought, i can make it mandible, like a blacksmith makes metals mandible... i saw beauty in the jaw, upon the altar of chewed food... the face i was given, is nothing more than a mask, behind with, an entire theater of thinking potentials resides in slumber, waiting to be woken; what i see in my shadow is nothing cold akin to a cold akin to Kant... i see... a sepulcher of animation!

in appreciation of winter...

   looking at my library,
which...
  i compared it to the local
town library...

contains only one book,
that i also own...
  
  thomas mann's
dr. faustus...
if you're going to be serious
about philosophy...
just read that
to begin with...
believe me...
         philosophy begins
where humanism ends...
and Dr. Faustus is the pivot...
i sometimes dare to think
that reading Kierkegaard's
either / or magnum opus
was easier than reading
this ****** book...

and? always finish the books
you picked...
there's nothing worse
than starting a book,
not finishing it...
and subsequently claiming
to have read it...
  even if it takes you a year
  (extra)...
plow along... plow along...

                   but my appreciation
of winter?
i shower once a week...
why?
   the glorious cold...
my sweat isn't pungent...
it's the sweat associated with
the body working overtime
to keep itself warm
when the outside cold infests
the air...

i sniff my arm-pits...
nothing...
   one week passes...
i stand in the shower for about
5 minutes...
and i am... baptized...

considering the fact that
given the opportunity to be confirmed
i chose not to...
being baptized in this fashion,
in winter, one week later,
standing under the shower...

no dog...
  then i guess my next best bet at
a friend is... what i take with me everywhere...
without a dog,
only the shadow can become
man's next, best friend.