Show me your champion!

We as human beings have always looked to a hero to save us. Whenever we are faced with a challenge which cannot be solved with one simple action, we dream up a hero who is wiser, stronger, and more capable than we are.  And when we have granted them all the power we deep down wished we possess, we shroud them in mystery; claiming that no one knows who this person is but for some birth mark or sign in the heavens.  We transform our hero from a human like us to some supernatural being who will avenge us and put us back on the right path.  And while many may think this is purely the stuff of religions, fanatics, the confused, sci fi movies and novels, or the fantasies of the weak and bullied; let me tell you it happens every day, to all of us, at every level of society.  And it does not always take the form of a person.

When Past Meets Present

You exist through that which you cannot change; but you live through that which you can.  Reshape it into your on image; that which will be tomorrow. 

The world around us is constantly changing. What we saw and knew as children has either completely changed or undergone some level of evolution. We ourselves have changed. We no longer see ourselves, homes, communities and countries in the same manner. We begin to question what we held as the ‘norm’ and wonder if there were any absolute truths. All these changes force us to reevaluate how we think and feel about life, our community and the place of it all in the wider scheme of things.

Running the Rat Race

Depending on the situation I was faced with,  individuals from the previous generation have looked at me with alternating expressions of pity and wistfulness. Pity because society has accelerated the pace of life to near breakneck speed and wistfulness because of the opportunities now open to the youth to pursue any number of career and life paths.  Yet beneath both looks, there lies an undercurrent of fear and apprehension for the young persons who now have to navigate through a world overrun by challenges and pitfalls left over from the glory days of generations past.  This last emotion is what best encompasses the life awaiting today’s youth.

Fall in line…

We live in a world where we are bombarded with information; making the greatest skill that one possess the ability to sift through and identify the true, valid and valuable.  But even with such a skill, and though you may be blessed with intelligence, the frenzied social sphere created by modern society has made it increasingly difficult to be a woman.  This dilemma goes back to the very foundation of our socialization:  what is a woman?

The Circle of Life

No matter how you look at it, life often catches us by surprise with the rapidity of its flow and ceaselessness of its movement towards completion.  Just as the path of the Sun across the Earth’s surface marks the duration of one complete turn of our home on its axis, so too does the movement of the younger and older generations mark the time of our own circle of life.

Take for instance a teacher.  He/she would have guided the process of maturity of his/her students: offering words of wisdom, advice, knowledge and generally being the one to care for the physical and psychological needs of the younger generation.  He/she would have been relied upon, and been regarded with a certain level of awe and respect (hopefully); while he/she would regard those under his/her care with the feeling of authority and responsibility (I hope).