| When I was a child I held adventure near to my | | | | a fight; there is always a great battle between |
| heart. As I lay in my bed I would doze off to | | | | our longing and our destiny. Stay with me now. If |
| heroic dreams; leading an army into battle, fighting | | | | this is true, than all the defeat, the heartache, the |
| off tigers and scaling a castle wall to rescue my | | | | tragedy, the failure and the disillusionment doesn't |
| princess. In the morning I would rise to rehearse | | | | have to be the final blow, it is not the end to the |
| my part with wooden swords and cardboard | | | | story, it is the middle. If this is true, it is what I |
| shields. The maiden was destined to be mine, and | | | | was training for with my wooden stakes and |
| through my valor I would win her heart. | | | | cardboard scraps. If it truly is only the middle of |
| I remember the moment I felt my heart drop to | | | | the story, there is hope. Shrinking back is not an |
| my stomach for the first time. I was in the first | | | | option, because on the other side of this |
| grade. Her name was Rachel. Traveling down the | | | | battlefield is life, passion, victory; on the other side |
| Australian coast from my Grandfathers, I laid in | | | | is love. It is this vision, I believe, which can provide |
| my cabin on the train and began to dream. Rachel | | | | the courage and strength to push through the |
| was there with me, it felt so real she might have | | | | pain of transformation. |
| well been. With the innocence of a child, I held her. | | | | And what if there really is a dragon? What if it |
| I felt her brush her soft blonde hair against me | | | | has just snuck up behind us in our dereliction of |
| cheek. I still get chills when I recall the moment. I | | | | this thing we call life. What if it just looks different |
| remember it so vividly; it was as if the world | | | | than what we expected? |
| around had broken into symphony. I had won the | | | | We have found that its fiery breath has come in |
| beauty; I had scaled the wall and captured her | | | | the form of deep loss, failure, death, fear, |
| heart. I know, it sounds really cheesy. But be | | | | rejection, sickness, abandonment and loneliness? |
| honest with me for a moment. Whether you're a | | | | The wounds are real and they have a way of |
| man or a woman, you know exactly what I'm | | | | burning their mark on our soul. But at some point |
| talking about. | | | | we must decide. We must reconcile our wounds |
| Fairy tales, music, literature and movies all borrow | | | | with the apparent incongruity between our |
| from this mythic theme. A strong man coming to | | | | longings and the way life has turned out. On that |
| the rescue of a beautiful woman, it is written on | | | | ground we are confronted with our identity and |
| our hearts and unveiled to us in the purity of our | | | | we must either choose to lie down in defeat, or |
| childhood. But somewhere between once upon a | | | | to rise up to the moment we have known was |
| time and happily ever after, we got lost, we got | | | | coming all our lives. |
| wounded and we've become cynical. | | | | Some may be willing to rise up and fight once, |
| Don Henley says, We've been poisoned by these | | | | twice, even three times. But a warrior knows his |
| fairy tales. | | | | place in the battle. A warrior is in it for good. If |
| That seems like the most reasonable explanation | | | | we desire to have the love and passion and |
| in response to the futility of our quest for love. | | | | adventure that we dream about, that we ache |
| But what if its not true? What if we have not | | | | for, we must abandon our self-protection and |
| been poisoned by these fairy tales at all, but we | | | | come to the place where it is no longer about |
| have failed to take them seriously enough? | | | | winning or losing; it is about life and death. For |
| Roland Hein says, Myths are stories that confront | | | | what we attain too cheaply we esteem too lightly. |
| us with something transcendent and eternal. | | | | But he that sheds his blood on the battle field, he |
| I'm almost 28 years a man now. I've had years | | | | shall enjoy the fruits of his labor, and his victory |
| of defeat, heartache, tragedy, failure and | | | | shall be heard on the playground in the voices of |
| disillusionment. Yet I still dare to hope. And as I | | | | his children, and his children's children, for |
| recall the stories which have brought me great | | | | generations to come. |
| courage along my quest for authentic masculinity, | | | | I think I can do that. It is in me. It is what I have |
| I realize there is something that I have | | | | trained for. It is who I am. |
| overlooked. I can never reach the beauty without | | | | |