Ramblings of a drunken monkey

Part 4: Darkness and Light

So I'm guessing by now, four chapters in, you're waiting for me to get to the point. Well, I guess so am I.

We live in a world with minds narrowed by new discoveries and scientists 'pushing the envelope' when in many cases they are simply giving one 'proven' result for something that many had already found multiple results for that worked just fine thank you. Take this elusive cure for cancer that everyone is searching for, to say it's a myth would be to contradict myself but on the path to search for the one cure for all cancers people seem to be missing all the little cures for Steve's cancer, or Bob's or Ali's. Yes people do die from cancer every day but equally, there are a number who survive cancer every day. Whether it is by chemo therapy, alternative therapies, diet, miracle, placebo or accident doesn't really matter. Yes The cure for cancer is likely out there and I'd be saddened to believe there isn't one but there are also so many methods that heal that are cast aside or shunned because they have not been proven to work every time. Why should they? Every person is different and will have different chemistry and body dynamics so why should the cancers that attack them be any different?

The progress of our world is being steered by those who have money and seek to make more money, often at the expense of the truth. There I said it now I wait for men in masks to find me (and then I poke them with my big pointy sword, and laugh as I disappear into the wind). How often are people told that there is no fix for a condition and they must live with it for the rest of their lives, and then they open their minds from what 'proven medicine' tells them and find a cure to the problem? Worse, how often are people told there is no help and then go to their graves believing that fact when they could have lived on happily and healthily?

So how much do we take fate for granted? Do we accept that this is our end? There's a 2014 remake of the legend of Hercules and I'm a big fan of the film, in particular one bit (spoiler alert). Ian McShane plays a soothsayer who has seen his own death it the point of a flaming spear in a place 'that looks a lot like hell'. Having seen his own death he fights every battle without fear because he knows it is not his time. However, when he comes to the time (at the end of the film) when the spear is flying towards him he stands, arms open and accepts his fate, only to have the spear snatched out of the air by Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) and thrown back at the spearman. He lived his life accepting his fate and when his very end came to him he offered his life peacefully. But he was wrong, of sorts (yes I see the contradiction in this bit). As happened, the end he had seen became a choice and not fate's will. If he had simply moved then he would have lived on by his own hand. Instead he chose a death he had seen and accepted so long ago.

The point of all this is that the future may be guided by those around us but I don't believe it's written yet, not every step of the way at least. Whilst there may be an end goal waiting for each of us, the route to that goal is not set in stone; the lessons learned, the mistakes made, the revelations and amazing events witnessed and shared are not all foretold. True there is an easy path but how many of us end up walking that one, even if we knew it would we not be tempted to try that bit over there, just for a second?! Indeed if we rejected every hint of where we should go, followed every 'wrong' path then our true life purpose may never be reached. Sounds like a sad way to live just out of ignorance or stubbornness.

If you drift through life without bothering to find or live your purpose, you will die in the end; eventually and inevitably you will die. Horrible to say but true. It's the bit between birth and death that you're missing out on.

If you strive throughout life, dreaming of achieving every goal you set and then resenting and hating every moment and every goal you fail in then you will likely spend a good portion of your life hating fate, and then you'll die. You'll certainly be better off than those who never tried, if a little more emotional, because you took chances and risks and rode the highs and lows of those endeavours but these highs and low may be a little extreme.

If however, and god(s) help you find the way, you are able to balance doing what you enjoy, striving for better and grabbing opportunities that present themselves but accepting defeat where it inevitably hits you in the face (hell, if you get that lot right you deserve every success and happiness you find) then you will reach a level of mastery in your endeavours that are somewhere along the road to wizardry.

So what then defines 'wizardry' other than the level of mastery? In my opinion it is how it is chosen to be wielded on the world around you.

I used an example earlier of a fighter, they may learn basic technique, advanced levels, then even learn the truths of their techniques and actions. At this point they may be considered wizards but there is still the differentiation between them being 'dark', 'light' or 'true'. I guess you could try to use the Chinese terms of Yin, Yang or Tao but they're a little more complicated than that.

The concepts of these three groups have only just occurred to me but are no less accurate for that fact.

A dark wizard understands the truth and basis of any technique and uses them, not by action alone but by intent, to further their own station, regardless of the situation. This is not innately 'evil', more like 'selfish to the detriment of others'

A light wizard has a similar level of understanding but uses it purely for the improvement of others. Termed 'selfless to the detriment of ones self' rather than 'good'.

Both of these, however seemingly noble, are simply imbalanced and I want to make the distinction between 'selfish and selfless' and 'good and evil'.

A true, or natural wizard understands the need for selfishness and self-preservation, possibly even more than is considered 'proper' in society and social order, as well as the importance of helping others when appropriate. After all we are ultimately responsible for ourselves and every service to do for others is a disservice to ourselves. Indeed our status of 'good' or 'evil' or 'right' and 'wrong' can be filtered down to our own innate willingness to help others. This fact alone demonstrates the fine line we ourselves create between light and dark, good and evil and right and wrong. As you can see by the interpretation of 'selfish' being potentially 'evil' and likewise 'selfless' being innately 'good' many of these labels are tainted by societal pressures and expectations. If an action would ultimately benefit ourselves and indeed others but society dictates it to be 'evil' or 'wrong' then is it wrong in truth? A member of our family or local society is being attacked and we defend them, causing damage to the attacker; are we in the wrong for causing harm when the initial stimulus was itself harmful? Natural order may say no but societal order may say yes.