Odysseus and the Genius of Dr. Seuss

"Swimming lessons are better than a lifeline to the shore." - C.S. Lewis

Twas the night before Cambridge
And I lay here like a louse
Watching patients get insulted
Hilariously by Dr. House

Bad rhymes and Hugh Laurie aside, I have a lot on my mind on this night before I head out on my great journey across the Pond. (Disclaimer: for those of you reading this, all five of you, this entry's going to be rather philosophical and mythological and metaphorical and a couple other "icals" I've probably forgotten about, so if that kind of stuff bores you, stop reading now and wait till I've actually written something from England.)

Speaking of rhymes, Dr. Seuss in his brilliant but cliche (due it's popularity as a graduation present) book "Oh The Places You'll Go," describes what he calls "the Waiting Place" where people sit around and just wait for things to happen and their life pretty much comes to a standstill. The reason I bring this up is because I have spent most of my life in this so-called waiting place. All my life I've had a craving for adventure, and when I was a kid I fully embraced it, exploring the woods and creek in my neighborhood, running around museums, etc. But as I got older something changed. Somehow I started seeing the world not as a place full of excitement and wonder, but of danger and fear. It was like all the bright colors suddenly went out of the world, leaving ominous gray.

Why did this happen? I have a few ideas. When we grow up, we're told to put away childish things, but I fear society interprets that a little too literally, especially the educational system. One of the things we get rid of which we should hold onto is curiosity, a longing to know more, a desire to understand. The school I grew up in did everything in it's power to take that away from me. It used to be when I found something I liked I wanted to know everything there was about it. For instance, as a kid I loved dinosaurs, and as such I memorized as many dinosaur names as I could.

But at the school I went to (particularly the middle and high school) this wasn't allowed. What the teacher presented to you was absolute truth and if you dared ask stupid questions like "What does this mean" or "Why does this matter" you were publicly degraded, considered a nuisance to the class. Their motto was "If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you."

This was part of my journey to the Waiting Place, for in the Waiting Place there is nothing interesting, nothing fascinating, nothing imaginative. It was a place of certainty, a safe place, where nothing would happen. Society tells people to take off their rose-colored glasses but when this happens I think most people simply swap them for grey-colored ones. But the problem with both prescriptions is they trick you into thinking the world is only one color, which is the ultimate purpose of the Waiting Place. Something tells me Yahweh didn't create a whole spectrum of light and colors for us to just focus on one.

In Jurassic Park III, Sam Neil talks about how they're two types of boys, astronomers and astronauts. Astronomers get to study the stars from Earth, in a place of complete safety. But they only get to see one part of the night sky. Astronauts on the other hand get to leave Earth altogether, to know what zero gravity feels like, to see the universe in its infinity, to see a tapestry of stars spreading out in all directions.

Unfortunately, most people, including me, have opted to become astronomers, to stay in the Waiting Place. Why? Like I said, because it's safe. Astronauts have to take risks, like exploding shuttles and ruptured space suits, whereas an astronomer just has to sit and look at the sky and "study." Don't get me wrong, I know education is important, but I think we've forgotten why it's important. The point of sitting in a classroom is not to take what you learn there and find excuses to stay there. That's like a soldier going through basic training and choosing to stay at boot camp instead of heading off to the frontline. The point of education is to prepare you for the world beyond school.

I'm not saying people who're afraid of risks are cowards. People who let their fears rule them and drive them to the Waiting Place are. It's natural to feel afraid when such a grand opportunity is before you, because there is a chance things could go wrong, because you're afraid of what it might cost.

On our next to last day of class, Dr. Gilbert, who led the Cambridge trip last year, came to talk to us. He compared our Cambridge journey to the Odyssey, the voyage of Odysseus, one of my favorite Greek heroes. He said that we, in our own way, were heroes about to embark on our own epic. Apparently he forgot that Greek heroes had a habit of dying tragically once their adventures were over. Real encouraging.

Tragic deaths aside, the Odysseus analogy fits rather well, and not just for the reasons he mentioned, namely the monsters Odysseus encountered representing the challenges we'd face overseas. The larger story before the Odyssey fits as well.

When the Greek kings came to Ithaca to recruit Odysseus for the Trojan War, he tried to stay home. An oracle had prophesied that if he went to war he would be forced to undergo a long arduous journey in order to return to Ithaca. He knew that in spite of the pontential rewards of fighting at Troy, there would almost assuredly be a high price to pay. He feared he'd be risking everything and gaining nothing.

To fool the other kings into leaving him alone, Odysseus pretended to be insane, sowing salt, hitching a donkey to his plough, and driving it wildly. He tried to make sure he would stay in the Waiting Place. But one of the other kings placed Telemachus, Odysseus' newborn son, in front of the plough. Odysseus was forced to turn the plough away from his son and thus proving his sanity. By this the other kings showed Odysseus that the price of staying in his Waiting Place would ultimately be higher than going to war. The same is true for us. If we never leave we will always be safe, but as time goes on everything we value will slip away from us.

Let us not forget the gods who made themselves part of Odysseus' journey. First, Hermes, the god of travelers and tricksters and Odysseus was both, appropriate given that Hermes was his great grandfather. A connection with Hermes implies reliance on wits, the ability to think on one's feet, a useful skill when facing the unknown.

Next we have Athena, who sprang from the head of Zeus, thus making her the goddess of wisdom and strategy. She favored Odysseus the most out of all the gods, largely due to his cleverness. As such she helped him any way she could in order for him to return to Ithaca. But it wasn't simply the fact that Odysseus was clever. It was the way he used his talents, building the Trojan horse, tricking the Cyclops, that made Athena love him. If he didn't use them at all, she would have despised him, or worse ignored him altogether. Whatever gifts we have in life, we have for a reason, to help us on whatever adventure, or misadventure, we find ourselves on. Not using them is just as bad as abusing them.

Odysseus made an enemy of Poseidon when he blinded the Cyclops, Poseidon's son. Poseidon was the god of the sea, of storms. His unpredictable nature made him a poignant threat to any who crossed him, plus the fact that Odysseus had to cross his domain in order to return home. Fortunately, like I said earlier, Odysseus' wits were ideal to face such a foe. The fact of the matter is things rarely if ever go according to plan. "Whenever I make a plan, God laughs at me." However, when the unexpected happen, we will often surprise ourselves and rise to the occasion, proving to others, and ourselves, that we were a lot stronger than we thought.

Lastly there was Zeus, the king of the gods, who is at the heart of all Greek myths in one way or another. It was he who gave Athena permission to help Odysseus, as well as Poseidon permission to hinder him. In these actions we see echoes of Yahweh, since all mythology in one way or another is a different version of His own story. As Job said, "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" Zeus was not a one sided god; he intended Odysseus to return home but he also allowed him to endure hardship. It is the same with Yahweh. He could make our journey easy for us, remove everything in our way, make our paths compeletly safe. But then there would be no risk, no adventure, and no story.