Poem: July 18, 2019

Hero's Journey

The challenge is not the obstacles,
not the 9-headed monsters,
not the boiling red lakes,
not the many cuts or betrayals,
or the knotted puzzle to be solved.

Any of us can divert mighty rivers.
All of us have slain a thousand dragons.
We've outwitted giants, and given
our jailers the slip. We've broken
free of tentacles, shaken ourselves
free from the hypnosis of satisfaction.

We've crossed our seas
and earned our scars.
All of us. Always.

Our challenge is not overcoming.
To live is to overcome.

Our challenge is to free ourselves
from the notion that we are the only
heroes, that the world is ours to save,
indeed, that the world can be saved.

That this story was ever written
for us, if it was written at all.