Thursday, July 1, 2021

Escaping the labyrinth


 

Myths and legends have always fascinated me. They are the stories of our own self-development and our relationship with God.

When I was very young had the opportunity to study many of the stories. One that held my attention was a story of Daedalus and his son Icarus.

Daedalus, a great inventor, created such a labyrinth for the king of Crete that no one could get out of.
In a rage due to misunderstanding, the king imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in the labyrinth.

To escape, Daedalus fabricated wings for him and his son, using beeswax and feathers of all sizes that they found here and there. Icarus was told not to fly too near the sun as the wax would melt. In his youthful excitement and the joy of the flight itself, Icarus flew closer and closer to the sun, the wax melted. The wings disintegrated. He fell into the sea and drowned.

There are many meanings in this short story.

The labyrinths of our lives are of our own making. We go round and round and down the same paths without finding a way out. Through our ingenuity, we may get some reprieve.

We escape from our own complications on the wings of our own fabrication, only to come crashing down again.

Instead of the blind enthusiasm of Icarus, let me have the common sense of Daedalus.
He survived and later built a temple to Apollo, the most beautiful of the gods, where he offered up his wings and retired from such flying forever.

Instead of going through all of this, if we are the ones who created our labyrinths, we also have the secret of getting out of them.

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