Growing up in a small town, I dreamed of experiencing this planet's beauty. “I want to see the world,” I would tell everyone. Adventures from the Magic Treehouse books and the History Channel got me excited for what was out there. Discovery Channel shows on ancient civilizations peaked my interests. Myths and tales of heroes overcoming challenges drove me to build a similar life. Something I couldn’t find in the farm town I was raised.
One of my earliest memories is from a neighbor who showed me a slideshow on his computer of mystical places he had just returned from; Stonehenge and Rome. As middle school came around, history class studied the Samurai as well as Pharos. I built a model Roman bathhouse with my Dad while studying ancient Europe. From there my personal fascination with ancient life boomed. I consumed everything I could about the Greeks, Mayan, Inca, and Chinese focusing on their hero stories. Hercules was my favorite, but that was because of Disney.
Next came my love for explorers. All would kiss their loved ones goodbye and hope to return from their impossible task to tend the family farm so future generations would prosper. Maybe for several years, they would encounter the unknown. Some would board ships, drop their sails, and set off hoping a sea monster wouldn’t swallow them whole. Others would saddle their horse and ride off into the sunset, with a locket and a handkerchief tucked tightly against their chest from their bride to be. Why they never left in the morning still bewilders me.
All of these characters acted in the name of love. Pushing themselves beyond what they could imagine, into an unfamiliar mental and physical territory. Devoted to their task, they would spend years, if not a lifetime to overcome the challenges put in front of them. The shame of retiring unsuccessful was too great, so they pushed on. Learning about the world allowed them to understand what they could achieve. Limits no longer existed as they stood at the ship’s bow in an 80-foot swell. Courage, stupidity, determination, and, above all, love drove them to success.
I wanted to make my life one of those hero stories, but, in a world on the precipitous of self-driving cars, social media, border control, and consumerism, is there still a hero story to write? Google will tell us, all the three-headed dragons have been slain. Sleeping in a trees will get you put behind bars. With an eight-second attention spans of and divorce rates creeping around 45% how can one consider setting off on a journey in the name of love and prosperity for generations to come, when out of sight, out of mind is today’s reality?
There isn’t room for these stories in today’s chapter. A hero must give back all that was unrightfully inherited. The fight is no longer against nature, but against the constructs confining ourselves. Relearning how to trust others, share, and care for the land. If we want freedom, we must live out our contracts we have made, attempt to not pass on any obligations to our children, and work towards surrendering to the misfortune we have created. Learn the impacts of what we have created, feel the suffering, and heal each other. Our modern hero is not the one pushing the boundaries of what stuff can do, but those pushing the boundaries of how love can heal.