Heroes and Sprituality

In ancient times many epics were written across many cultures glorifying the hero archetype. When I say this I am certainly not referring to what one might associate someone like say Superman with but rather to characters the likes of Herakles (Hercules), the Pandava Brothers, Samson and Gilgamesh. All of these characters' stories possessed the most important part of what makes a truly good hero epic: Tragedy. It was only natural for the greatest among us to feel the greatest of pain. Regardless of their deeds the entire world wept with them, felt their sorrow first hand. It is the pain of being so powerful. So beyond the mundane. This pain is the one ingredient from each story that has allowed their stories to survive throughout the ages. We tell these tales over and over in countless different formats, genres, and mediums. They invade our consciousness and occupy our language with metaphor and adjective (i.e. a herculean task).

Why?

I think in part it is that human beings have a natural tendency to glorify the greatest of us. To place the greatest among us on a pedestal. There is also an even more deeply ingrained tendency to believe in more. By this I mean that all of us want to, deep down on some level, believe that there is more to this existence than the everyday. More than meets the eye. When these two desires combine themselves with the very nature of storytelling (and its accompanying embellishments), heroes are born and their tragedies are magnified until the whole world weeps with them.

What I don't know is where today's heroes will come from? Who will embellish their deeds? Who will weep at their tragedies? Is it that the very nature of the world and its increasing lack of communication barriers will prevent any of that from occurring? In the ancient days so many of our heroes gained their fame through their exploits in war, but is the face of war so changed, so shifted towards the anonymity of the kill and the deglorifying of our warriors that heroes will no longer emerge from the ranks of our military? Gone are the days of warriors like the great Bhima Pandava, who sat out of a great battle, not out of cowardice but out of respect for life. (The previous battle he had killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers all by his lonesome.)

Is the world really so different from then? Has the paradigm shifted too far? Will people, in two thousand years still read about Gilgamesh? Will the Bible be the only surviving testimonial of heroism? Will any of it last?

I believe we need a hero (cue music). Someone to believe in again. It doesn't have to be a messiah. It doesn't have to signal the end of days. We just need a rejuvenation. Someone to lead us to glory. Someone who fights for no nation or sovereign rule but for right and wrong, and then just when they are at their greatest, we'll crucify the SOB. Sacrifice him in a pyre and I'll bring the BBQ grill. The world needs to be reminded of the true potential of humanity and then they need it taken away from them one more time.

I'm changing my blog theme...

Henceforth this blog will no longer be about me and my personal life directly. This will be my place to discuss religion, politics, mythology, comics, books, and other wonders of pop culture. I find that this blog, with its title, would suit those topics better in the long run. I will be making a new blog which will be located at another address and will be about me personally and is more of a diary of self discovery. The address will be given out only to friends as it has come to my attention that I've been writing this blog with the knowledge that anyone I don't know could read it and I believe that has caused me to tailor my writing for the public and I was actually worrying about what other people think when reading it. This defeats the entire purpose of what I had intended this blog to be, which was a personal diary of sorts. It can't really be personal if I'm concerned about what others think.
Yet...
I also find that I really would like to use this blog for the purposes of discussion of the aforementioned topics. So, if you were reading this blog and you are interested in the diary stuff be sure to contact me through gmail or ask me personally about the new locale of the diary-type blog.


And so without further ado...

Realizations...

I am not doing so bad. I have to keep telling myself that. I realize that I am actually accomplishing things in my life. I have completed several years of college, I have made great steps in my career as an artist, I have run my own business, I have survived almost seven years in a monogomous relationship with a woman I am deeply in love with... I'm not doing so bad. I am actually accomplishing things and I frequently lose sight of that. I beat myself up for all of my mistakes so often that I forget that I have actually done a few things in my life that haven't been complete failures. I feel like I wear failure goggles and all I see is my faults. I'm about to do big things. I'm about to be making some of the biggest decisions of my life and I can't keep berating myself like this. I need to stop listening to the voice in my brain that tells me I can't succeed. I need to start listening to my heart.
What is my personal legend? What does my heart know and what has it been trying to tell me all this time?

I know deep down that I was meant to draw comic books. I was meant to be a story teller. And more than that, I was meant to make a difference with my stories. I was meant to open the eyes of others.

I feel like I am on the right path, but sometimes I'm not so sure. Sometimes I think that I feel a calling to go and put my all into my art and to not stop until I'm a giant success. Sometimes I think that I need to keep doing what I'm doing and keep putting out the art and success will come to me.

Whatever my path is I need to be confident and believe in myself all the way and I need to listen to my heart.


I'm listening.... I can almost hear what it is saying. And I'm gonna keep listening.