A Psalm of Life

42, “…a mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose”, “the property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism.” 42, the meaning of life, the universe, and all things from Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Conrad’s definition, and finally the American Heritage Dictionary: each of these are viable definitions of the meaning of life, but they leave out a very important detail, one that most humans do everything ignore, death. Many might feel death should have a definition of its own, but in reality death is just as much a part of life as the conclusion is to a story. Life is a story that at some point has to come to a close.

In Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh himself, the man who was two thirds god has to deal with the doom and gloom of death when Utnapishtim states “There is no permanence” (106). Throughout all of history and time mankind has been obsessed with this notion of escaping death. In the days of the Conquistadores, Juan Ponce de Leon went to the Americas to find the fountain of youth. In the very first Harry Potter the Sorcerer’s Stone has the capabilities of turning man immortal. Whether it is a part of history or literature, we are consumed by this need for immortality.

What does it truly mean then, that we can never be immortal? According to most literature, man eventually is either consumed by the fact that he can never be immortal and destroyed or is able to understand that life comes to an end and enjoys it. Man will always take one of those two roads. In Harry Potter for example, we see how Voldermort’s greed leads to his downfall and Harry’s compassion allows him to destroy the stone. Dumbledore explains later to Harry that Nicholas Flannel is actually quite content because he is ready for a long awaited rest. Everything seems to work out in the end. In Star Wars the result is similar. At the end of the original Star Wars, A New Hope, Obi Wan tells Darth Vader, “If you strike me down, I will become stronger than you ever imagined.” In the third movie of the new movies just released, it is Anakin’s fear of death that leads him to the dark side. These are two very contrasting perspectives. Yoda however explains it best when he says that death is a natural part of life that we all must accept. What do Yoda’s words mean though and how can mankind move on? The answer comes in Yoda’s next words, “Luke, when gone am I... the last of the Jedi will you be ...Pass on what you have learned, Luke.” Man is able to move on because we plan for our future now.

I am the youth course director for a Boy Scout Youth Leader Training conference held each year. Each course my staff has to make a presentation on why we train others to be leaders. Looking at Yoda’s quotation answers this. We are able to continue on as a race, as a specie, simply because we train our younger generations to be leaders. This is also what gives us meaning in life. Many people would say it is how much money they make or how many friends they have, but what truly gives us meaning, what truly allows us to leave our mark is that we have prepared our future generations for the travails and travesties that we have encountered so that our future generations can succeed.
Now, how in fact can we live life and not be overcome by the doom and gloom of death. Well, Henry Wadsworth Fellow explains it quite simply in his poem, and the name of this blog, A Psalm of Life.

WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST
TELL me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream ! — For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.
Life is real ! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal ; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way ; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle ! Be a hero in the strife !
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant ! Let the dead Past bury its dead ! Act,— act in the living Present ! Heart within, and God o'erhead !
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time ;
Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate ; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

We are able to create an order in our lives, a desire to live, because there are things worth living for. Life is what we make it and at any time we can truly take advantage of it. If we look at the Bible, we can say G-d put us here on this earth for a purpose, while we might not know this purpose, we can in fact know that it was not to be consumed by the thoughts of death. “Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time.”

Harrowing over what is a Hero

The label of hero for an individual is tossed around quite freely these days, but what exactly makes a person or character a hero?

“We need a hero, courageous sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero, people line up for 'em, cheer for them, scream their names, and years later tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who told them to HOLD ON a second longer. I believe there’s a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble. And finally gets us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want most, even our dreams.”
- Aunt May: Spiderman 2

“The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.”
- Felix Adler

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”
- Joseph Campbell

According to Peter Parker’s Aunt May, from the movie, Spiderman 2, a hero is a person who simply sets a good morale example for everyone else to follow by. Felix Adler an author of several books interprets a hero slightly differently seeing a hero as a person who lights the way for all of man kind. Finally, Joseph Campbell another author says that a hero gives his or her life for a bigger cause. Just from these three examples, we can see that there is quite a large range of views on the exact definition of a hero, but rather than discount all of them, all these views help determine the grand picture of “What is a hero?”

Dating back to first recorded text, with “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, a character referred to as a “hero” was born. In texts ranging from Greek mythology to modern day literary pieces the use of hero has not waned. Literarily speaking, a “hero” is a strong protagonist who is confronted by either a large task or burden and eventually goes on an adventure to conquer or overcome it. Frodo Baggins, the protagonist, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s, “Lord of the Rings”, is just one example of what many consider to be a hero. Frodo’s travels take him across Middle Earth to dispose of a mythical ring which has brought evil forces upon all of its inhabitants. His conquering of dragons, wizards, and other black magic at the expense of himself are what define him as a hero.

The definition of a hero though goes further than just the literary sense of the word. A hero is an individual who encompasses all the moral values and characteristics desired by and individual or society. Therefore, the violent hero of Greek mythology such as Odysseus, one who is heroic because he defeats large beasts with swords and daggers is just as much a hero as the firefighters who saved lives on September 11th, 2001.

Looking at the gender tilt of whether females can indeed be “heroines”, the truth is that they can. Since a hero is determined by what a society treasures most, if the female character had the same qualities necessary to meet the requirements of the society then she in fact could be. In the case of Beowulf, The Odyssey, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Star Wars or even Indiana Jones, females were not the heroes simply because the society didn’t perceive them to be capable of saving a kingdom, nation, or even galaxy from the clutches of evil.

When trouble is afoot, why is that we always look to the skies, or toward the horizons. Do we need heroes in life? Looking back to the Aunt May quotation earlier in this blog, we look to the skies in search of that someone who can help us hang on in life for one second longer. Whether this person helps us hang on to our goals or more dramatically the ledge of a building which Aunt May is describing. Aunt May also helps answer the question further by explaining that there is a hero within each of us that keeps us moral. If this is indeed the case, then the answer is clear, we all need a hero in order to live happy and successful lives.

Bertold Brecht has a different opinion of whether a society needs a hero. He states, “Unhappy the land that needs heroes.” His reasoning is that a hero is determined upon a society’s desires not the other way around. A society can in fact accomplish its goals without a hero, so one needing one is simply unhappy because they do nothing for themselves to accomplish their goals, only waiting for another to accomplish them. While, both Aunt May’s and Brecht’s opinions are quite different, following our definition that a hero is the embodiment of a society’s morals and ideals, having no hero means there are no morals or ideals and chaos is allowed to wreak havoc. Thus, we do in fact need heroes, however, we may in fact be the heroes ourselves.