Heroes

Most of us who have been blessed with a good childhood - nourishing, playful, innocent - have grown up with dozens of favourite stories/ legends/ myths, narrated to us by loving caregivers...shaped by our imaginations and fantasies. Many of these stories will have had a "hero". The hero has many forms, ranging from the invulnerable deity or demigod who conquers all foes, to the tragic protagonist who faces severe adversities before reaching a happy ending...and sometimes not even that.

We all grow up with our heroes. In the recesses of our mind we cling to their images and draw on them whenever we can to make comparisons between their tales and the circumstances of our own lives. Often, we try their approaches to solving problems in our lives. It's almost like we ask ourselves, "What would Superman have done?" and try to follow suit. I'm sure there are people for whom this works well and others who have yet to find the balance between myth and 'reality'.

The heroes of legend, exist largely in works of literature or in hand-me-down stories, passed along the generations by word of mouth. They exist in paintings, carvings, tapestries, sculptures etc. that people look upon with awe, as representations of the stories they play and replay in their minds. They become symbols of power, effort, and hope that people look up to, scarcely realising where the real power comes from...their own minds!

Regardless of whether or not these heroes ever walked the earth, they exist because human minds wills them into existence. Their lives persist because the human race honours them with its memory of their efforts and exploits. The human imagination gives them colour, detail, sound, meaning and much more...it is where the true power of the hero lies. Giving birth to both the demon that was slain and to the hero that destroyed it, the mind is by far more powerful that the hero it shapes. People look up to the hero and pour their faith into its symbolism. They have only to realise that they don't really depend on heroes...heroes depend on them. From Hercules to Superman, every hero that exists, exists only because there are people to validate his heroism.

There is no quality in heroes that cannot be manifested in ourselves. Heroes are but waves on the limitless ocean of human potential. Think about it...

Shrugging Off the Shackles

For some time now I've been trying, rather unsuccessfully to get a post up on this blog. I gave myself several reasons for it... no time, stifled creativity, fatigue etc. But it was only a few minutes ago that the real reason struck me, and to be honest, it quite embarrassed me, in my own eyes!

Ever since the idea grew on me, I've always maintained that it's important never to let any ideals remained unquestioned in your mind. The ones that are worth adhering to are the ones that pass the tests of your own reasoning and inspection. They are the thoughts that last you for lifetimes and mark you with a distinct individuality...

One of my ideals is to resist any sort of ideas that limit free-thinking on my part, or that stop me from progressing...and recently I allowed myself to fall unwittingly into just one such trap, which is what prevented me from posting anything on LifeStrings for such a long time!

For some reason, I convinced myself that there was a particular post that I just HAD to put up before I got down to writing anything else. I tried for weeks on end to write it, but while this post is literally spurting from my fingertips, I could not get past two paragraphs on that one... I kept telling myself that I'd get back to it sometime, that it was probably just the workload in the office or a small writer's block that was coming in my way. It was neither of the two... it was just my subconscious bonding to an idea that I never really liked in the first place! Now that I look at it, the topic that I chose for that post, was likely to merit nothing more than a mundane narrative of reality. A movement from 'then I did this', to 'then I did that'...which is so powerfully opposed to everything that LifeStrings stands for. This is a space in which I share my feelings with you...deeper thoughts, insights expressed spontaneously and almost all completed and published in the same day that I thought of them. The mundane has little scope for expression here! This is a place where I let go of all the "shoulds" that don't make me feel good about adhering to them...how ironic therefore, that a little "should" was the cause of my long hiatus from the blogosphere! lol!

I never HAD to marry myself to that regressive idea, but I did so sub-consciously, probably because I thought that I could make it fit the theme of this blog, somehow. But that's exactly where I went wrong! You see, I have never before had to "make" something fit LifeStrings...it always came naturally, quickly. It either fit or it didn't...and if it didn't, that was OK. This time, I was trying to force something to fit this blog, which is precisely what made my mind falter.

Let me take this opportunity therefore, to affirm that I never want to be in such a state again...where the movement of my mind is restricted by any kind of influence, from within or without. I never want my inner ear to be unable to hear the notes and chords in Life's music. And I want to be ever-attuned to the little things that make big differences.

I'm back and LifeStrings will soon have more on it pages! :)

God Bless!