Dear Reader:
We each of us have a story and every hero’s journey ever written emerges from pain and suffering. We triumph through our tragedies and this is the lesson for us all. Greatness comes to those who transform their history into purpose and our purpose always comes through our service.
Such is the story of Edmond Dante. Alexander Dumas is in my opinion, one of the best writers especially when it comes to writing about the hero’s journey. I am certain you know of his works including among others, the Three Musketeers the Man in the Iron Mask, and my favourite; the Count of Monte Cristo.
I truly resonated with the lead character Edmond, Dante. You see Edmond in my opinion demonstrated one of our greatest flaws – That is naivety. You see nothing threatens our happiness, our ability to love and our ability to thrive, like naivety. And nothing threatens our commitment to all that is good and our commitment to all that is humane like naivety.
Naivety is to not recognize a threat or a foe. To be so good, so kind we cannot even imagine the possibility that evil exists or that others are capable of ill-doing. When we are so good, we are bound to see only the good in others and this lesson to open our eyes wider is a difficult one.
If you are unaware, destined for success; on the verge of marrying his love, of Captaining a great merchant ship and celebrating his loving father, Dante was sentenced to hell in the dungeons of Chateau D’If. There over many years, he suffered a great deal of pain, anguish, grief and loss. Who did this? His friends, his government, each jealous, envious and evil, subjected him to this cruelest of fates.
But amongst his greatest suffering was where he also received his education in the form of a wise man someone to mentor him and someone to also offer a way out. He was able to finally comprehend who had betrayed him, he was now able to be as sly and as clever as his enemies. His wisdom was etched in scars through torture and his legacy would be revenge. But first, he needed to escape and escape he did. In the most courageous of ways. For courage and confidence is the weapon against evil. As the fates would have it, from the failed innocence of Edmond Dante emerged, The Count of Monte Cristo. And emerge he did, with great wealth and capacity to harm those who had harmed the naïve Desmond.
Does he do so, does he harm them, does he punish them? The answer is yes. But in the end, he returns a better man, no longer the Count and no longer Dante, but a blend of the two. For his pain taught him even greater compassion, even greater love and allowed him to become resurrected into a hero. Naivety is afforded to only the fewest of us and often for only a short time. We must go through the many steps to reach our destiny in life and including:
Leaving our ordinary and safe world
Heading our call to adventure
Learning from our wise mentors
Committing to our journey and through courage (courage being our belief in ourselves our confidence) we cross the threshold of our challenge not because we trust others alone but we trust ourselves.
Passing the tests that life gives us by facing our foes and finding our true allies. Together you face your ordeals and then you reap your reward. Then you return to your ordinary world resurrected and bring with you the elixir of life to share with those you love and promise in doing so to serve the greater good. You return emerged a hero.
So in closing, I am here to share with you this message:
We each of us have a story and every hero’s journey ever written emerges from pain and suffering. We triumph through our tragedies and this is the lesson for us all. Greatness comes to those who transform their history into purpose and our purpose always comes through our service and one cannot rise until one has fallen. Let be emerged the hero in you and let those around reap the benefit of your triumph.
I hope to meet your hero within, with love,
Always,
Manon Joice
Komentar