An Ode to Ankles

You are prominent in everyday

To everyone, in many ways

But no one seems to pause and say

Thank you for my mobility

Thank you for this ability

To walk, to jump, until they see

A misstep, a “dink”, and now everything

Is suddenly so much harder, frustrating

They’re left on crutches, hobbling

But when I say “they”, of course, I do mean ME…

 

 

Expectation is the Root of All Heartache

The world-renowned playwright William Shakespeare once said the above words and I have to say I agree with his reasoning. It took  me a minute to fully understand what he was trying to say, but if you think about it, we experience heartache when we are let down. To be let down, we have to have had expectations that were not reached. In this way I think expectations hurt us more than benefit us. We can see this in Great Expectations, as Pip makes himself miserable by expecting a gentleman out of himself. This is clearly impossible (at least until chapter 18, wink wink) as Pip and his family are just able to get by, at least money-wise. However, expectations can also benefit us when they are exceeded beyond, well, expectation. These pleasant surprises are present in everyday life. Take a birthday party, for example. An older person might not expect a big party, but may be surprised by his children/grandchildren/friends with a party he doesn’t believe he deserves. This has experience will have exceeded his expectations and will probably create some of the best memories this hypothetical old person will have.

Using the same situation, we can answer the question that this kind of analysis leads to: How can we live a happy life, given that expectations are a part of human nature? Let’s say that our hypothetical old person was arrogant. He may think that he deserves the best party out of all of his friends and when he gets the party described above, he’s disappointed. His expectations are not fulfilled. His expectations are the ROOT of his HEARTACHE. Based on that, we can conclude that in order to live a happy life, we can try to stay humble, keep our expectations low, and exceed the expectations of those around us. Not in hope that they will do the same for us, but because it’s what we would want for ourselves. There is a difference!

The Quest of the Golden Fleece: Who is Responsible for the Tragic End?

One of the many stories in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is the Quest of the Golden Fleece. Jason, the leader of the quest, is said to have lived a generation before the hero of the famous Odyssey. The story begins as Jason sets out for the Golden Fleece in order to become the rightful king of a province in Greece. Many heroes join him, among them Hercules, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, and Peleus (Achilles’ father). This group is known as the Argonauts (Argo = the ship they sailed in; Nauta = Latin word for sailor; Argonauts = sailors of the Argo… !!). They face many challenges and meet many people along the way, but the details aren’t important until they get to Colchis, the home of the Golden Fleece. There, the king’s daughter, Medea, falls in love with Jason because of Cupid’s arrow, shot at her on Aphrodite’s orders. She helps Jason and the others win the contest against her father for the fleece and goes with them back to Greece. In order to accomplish this, she uses her great power of dark magic to give Jason temporary invincibility, betrays her father, and kills her brother. But she and Jason get married and have two boys once they get back to Greece. All is well until Jason leaves Medea and gets engaged to the Corinthian princess. Medea threatens this new bride, and she and her children are exiled by the king. Before she leaves, Medea decides to get her revenge. She kills the bride by sending her a wedding robe that makes her flesh melt off, and ultimately kills her children because, by her reasoning, they will only be killed by someone else after leading miserable lives as slaves, so she might as well do the deed herself. When Jason arrives to kill Medea to avenge the death of the bride, “the two boys were dead, and Medea on the roof of the house was stepping into a chariot drawn by dragons. They carried her away through the air out of his sight as he cursed her, never himself, for what had come to pass” (Hamilton 174).

The ending to this exciting tale is shockingly tragic. I found that my jaw dropped to the floor after I was done reading those last few paragraphs. That last sentence implies that Jason was at fault for what had happened, though he was too arrogant to realize it. But I don’t believe that he is responsible for that tragic ending. Throughout Greek mythology, there is a recurring theme that the gods get involved in mortal affairs and thing get really out of hand, really quickly. I believe this is one of those times. Aphrodite is at fault ultimately for what happens, because she pays Cupid to make Medea fall in love with Jason in the first place. If that hadn’t happened, Jason most likely would have died in the attempt to win the king’s contest. The quest would have failed. That’s all. The end. Goodbye. But that wasn’t the case, which is why I believe the tragic end to the Quest of the Golden Fleece is upon Aphrodite’s shoulders.