Discovery!

It finally happened!! I know that my English teacher from high school would be appalled at my two exclamation points,  but I can hardly contain my excitement.  I suppose that my struggle has been trying to find the mythologies in the world around me, anything  to continue and connect me in discovery of this beautiful unknown.  I look around the classroom at all the individuals who are so well read in the classics, Greek, art... everything.I would have to say that at times I feel like a student at the "two plus two" level in a class dealing with algebra.  But there is something about this class that draws you in; the discovery of self.  For the past two weeks I have dreaded blogging for the plain fact I have no clue what to blog about.  How does one take these beautiful stories and apply it to one's self.  Its something, I see now, has been blatantly staring me in the face.  The "ah haa moment."

Now with this introduction, you probably preparing yourself for this huge over the top story or coincidence, so I hope you are not too disappointed.  I think it was talking about Laurel wreaths that started a wheel turning.  I started to see to see athletes and Olympics and Roman gladiators, then with the story including Hercules, I couldn't help but think of the Olympic games.  As extreme as it is, I started to be more curious about the now and then comparison.  What modern day sports event, closely intertwined with my own self, reminded me of Ovid?  One word: wrestling.  For the past 14 to 15 years, I have been involved with the sport one way or another.  Whether attending practices as a young six year old or attending a tournament for a younger brother as a college a student,  this sport has followed me from childhood to adulthood.  In fact,  just this last weekend,  I was able to watch the youngest of my two brothers wrestle in Belgrade.  Although I had wondered at a connection last Friday,  I wasn't able to see if one existed until listening in class.  I was curious, though, why victors wore this adornment.  The answer soon seemed to show that Apollo himself was the embodiment of success and victory, encouraging mortals to engage in the wearing of the laurel wreath, or crown.  (Wikipedia).  Even now, I am doing more research into wrestling, of which I will share when I find what I am looking for.

Although this may seem to be a very loose association,  it was something that excited me because I finally got the idea that we had heard since the first day of class.  This was that just as Dorothy learned at the end of her adventure, everything she needed was right in her back yard.  For me, finding mythologies within myself was vital before I could see the mythologies around me.  As soon as I realized that I could see a connection within myself, mythologies began pouring in around me (I started making a notes of things I saw).  Trees suddenly were everywhere; Facebook, the gym, in the house of the my employer.  I can't tell you how excited I was.  And it is all thanks to Dorothy and her discovery in a journey to find something as well.


"I won't look any further than my own backyard; because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with." (Wikiquote)



http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreath
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz