My keystrokes fall like hammers, crafting weapons, brazen points single minded on their soft target. And from my forge, Prometheus took his glory, bringing the warm comfort of words to man. So give me your first cut, your finest drink, and I will make you victorious, with my hammer I will carve your name into every history book and though you will die, you will be immortal.
Determinism is the view that any event, whether physical or simply a mental process such as making a decision is determined by a chain of prior occurrences. In a purely scientific world, this is the only rationale that can be understood, as free will and a soul that makes unique, unpredictable decisions only can exist in a metaphysical world. A recent experiment has shown that your subconscious knows what random decision you are going to make about six seconds prior before you realize it.
So what does this mean for individuals and humanity as a whole? Since we are destined, our past essentially determining our future, does that relieve us of our control of our lives? Does this absolve us from the weight of our decisions and actions, or can we be held accountable to what is out of our control? Whether Kurtz is a monster, or just a product of the environment he was placed into is in the reader's hands to decide, and to blame Pandarus for firing an arrow and resuming the Trojan war overlooks Athena's interference in the situation.
This leaves me stuck between two sides of an argument... where does the control of one's life lie? In the hands of Man or God? Can I change my fate, or is it set in stone by the simple reactionary properties of the universe?
Regardless of whether I can only have one fate or many, I still feel it is in my control, for the weight of it sits heavy on my sholders. If Athena is at my back, whispering ideas into my head I believe are mine, so be it. I am determined of who I am, and the sweet nothings of an immortal or the simple reaction pathways my neurons follow may shape the path my life takes, but to exonerate myself from the consequences of my decisions kills any sense of being I hold dear.
As the days keep turning into night, its often hard to make the effort to slow things down for a minute, not to only smell the roses, but to recognize "the roses" importance to you, the world, your community, and what they may represent. As we focus on picking apart poetry and Heart of Darkness, which are close relatives, I have tried to teach myself to notice the small details that make works of iterature great. It could be a single word or phrase that give a poem or idea a completely different connotation, the smallest jumble of letters with the largest impact.
I have realized that the study of literature is not just the study of writing things down, it is the study of human life, struggle, and triumph. Thus the smallest details in my life can also have the greatest meaning, and I have begun to see the metaphors, foreshadowing, irony and significance of otherwise ordinary occurrences. When I leave in the morning, I begin my hero's journey, when it rains, I experience a rebirth, and when I cross a river, I am traveling to the underworld. Has my life began imitating art? Or am I simply becoming cognizant that art imitates my life? Nevertheless, it certainly gives me something to think about.
A storm rages upon a city, wreaking havoc with all the power of Mother Nature behind it. Torrents of rain slam down on cement walls, winds rage through streets, and everything is swept away by the swift hand of the clouds. In the midst of chaos, however, there is a place of peace. In the eye of the storm there is serenity, there is safety, there is salvation. I currently find myself in this sanctuary, watching the world tear itself apart around me. It seems as long as I move with the storm and stay in my bubble, I will be okay.
As I look upward, the glimpse of sunshine I see gives me hope that there are better things yet to come for me, yet I worry for those around me. Will my departure leave them in the wake of the tempest that has stricken my life? Or is this simply another rainy day that will pass as all those before it? The answers seem irrelevant as I all can focus on is staying in the eye, and avoiding the chaos that swirls around me.
