The Idyll of Everyman
/When you think of your struggles as chapters in your very own personal Idyll, your life is infused with dignity and purpose.
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Idylls of the King and similar heroic Idylls, makes it seem that only the lives of Kings, Ladies, Nobles, and Knights are proper subjects for dramatic narration. Everyone else is little more than a stage prop.
Modern dramatic narrations aren't Idylls. Modern dramatic narrations prefer everyday characters: bank-clerks, drifters, waitresses and truck-drivers, along with assorted killers, thieves, and low-life scammers.
The difference between heroic Idylls and low-life dramas is that heroism is glorified in the former and belittled in the latter.
Modern dramatic narrations celebrate the anti-hero. Anti-heroes only perform heroically, when forced into action. Heroism is staged as stupid recklessness.
The sort of thing only a "sucker" would do.
"Hey kid, don't put yourself out for anyone". "Heroes die young". "It ain't your problem". I guess that way of thinking explains all the videos I see of people standing around taking cell-phone pictures of an ongoing mugging.
The saying, "You are what you eat.", suggests, "You are the author of you own narrative". Every life is a narrative. Most of the plot will be written by forces beyond your control. Even so, you still have editorial influence.
Isn't every life a saga of dramatic twists and turns; a pageant of love, hate, remorse, revenge, destiny - and in fact - An Idyll of Everyman. Stories don't become Idylls because of deeds done, but because of how the deeds are told.
Idylls of mighty heroic deeds are written and revered for centuries. Personal Idylls may never get further than your head. So what?
When you think of your struggles as chapters in your very own personal Idyll, your life is infused with dignity and purpose.
Your dragon may not be as impressive as Sigurd's, but your challenge is as heroic, your home as much Camelot as King Arthur's castle, your love as romantic as Tristan's and Isabel's.
Every life is an Idyll. It's yours to write as you choose. Life can be a gallant unwinding adventure, or a dreary slog. The way you think about your life shapes how you live it.
The Idyll of Everyman is written by Everyman who wants it so.
Being a King is more about attitude than bloodline.
"Two hours of pushing broom,
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room,
I'm a man of means, by no means, King of the road".
- by Roger Miller
By K. L. Shipley
https://www.eclecticessays.com