The Road – Breakaway Consciousness

#Quote Of The Day | #Life | #TheRoad | #Journey

“Not all who wander are lost.”

The Individual & The Road | #Growth | #Life | #Perspective | #Choices

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
April 12, 2019

Life is a journey in myriad ways. What journey each individual takes is a personal choice, but choices abound.

Just like life offers you no choice whether you get to play the game of life, life offers you no choice whether to be on a path or not. Each of us are taking individual steps towards a specific bearing, in a particular direction, on a certain path. Each breath we take, each step we take, paves the current road we undertake, and the road that will forge itself ahead.

Whether individuals wish to take a literal journey (traveling to lands unknown), a spiritual journey (going to spiritual locales), a metaphorical journey (by reading a book or playing a video game), an imaginative journey (be creating a new path, a new journey) or something else, the choices are varied and intriguing as they are vast in scope.

Each path offers a drastically different adventure, not unlike what the great books of our past offered. Timeless books such as The Lord Of The Rings, The Divine Comedy, Don Quixote, The Odyssey, Paradise Lost, The Aeneid, and countless others, all offer a veritable quest under which the protagonist goes on the road of life, the personal journey. These roads taken, these journeys, mirror that of individuals in fictional form.

It is my contention that individuals gravitate towards these stories and myriad others because these mirror some of the more profound truths of life while wrapped in a journey of self-discovery that is always interesting to sink one’s mind into. That said, some of these truths on the road to self-discovery are aided by a character that is rarely is ever considered.

One could argue that this journey of self-discovery is aided by the most significant character you as an individual will encounter on the open road: the road itself.

Lord Of The Rings features the idea of the Road as a character in salient fashion.

In fact, Frodo opines on this notion in the Lord of the Rings, where he cautiously recalls what Bilbo sought to impart:

“[Bilbo] used often to say there was only one Road; that it was a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”[1]

Not unlike cautioning contact with a stranger, the main lesson Bilbo wished to impart on Frodo was that there was more to ‘the Road’ than it seems at first blush.

To this end, in his noteworthy book, On The Shoulders Of Hobbits – The Road Of Virtue With Tolkien & Lewis, author Louis Markos Ph.D. states:

“…the Road has a life of its own. It winds, bends, and turns in a thousand directions, ever ready to trap or mislead the unwary traveler. To set your feet to the Road is indeed a dangerous business, not only on account of the obstacles that you face along the way, but because the Road is akin to a living thing with which you must relate, struggle, and negotiate. It draws and lures you, tests and challenges you, either punishing or rewarding you for your troubles.”[2][Bold Emphasis Added]

Maybe the above notion is perhaps why certain individuals – like myself at times – have been reticent at at certain points to participate in certain journeys, whatever those may be. Perhaps deep down inside, this Road is life itself acting and showing us lessons, while being active because life by its very definition is alive. An interesting proposition to consider.

Perhaps it is fear of engaging with a greater something, something more significant. Fear is what held me back many times in life, and perhaps it was fear of ‘the Road’ – the journey; a possible derivative of life.

Side bar: there are many personal journeys of myriad types that I either did not engage in, and some of which I have chosen to take, though not always of my own accord initially. The commonalities each set of choices share is that those journeys I took, irrespective of what paths they were, always made me grow as a person. Conversely, the paths I did not take always left me feeling as if something unexplored withered to the sands of time.

Each of us individuals have paths we take, stories we live, and a future to unravel. What future that is will be highly dependent on what journey we undertake, and that’s saliently dependent upon whether we are open-minded to possibilities, or close-minded.

As individuals, each of us is not unlike Bilbo, where he was incredibly guarded of the Road. This could be because, deep down inside, at the being level, we must face something we have never faced before – ourselves – just as Luke Skywalker did in the cave.

Getting back on course, on this very notion of the Road, Markos notes:

“Since the Odyssey, nearly every epic hero has had to face at some point in his journey-quest the archetypal Descent into the Underworld. In the case of Virgil’s Aenid, Aeneas enters the realm of Hades as a grieving and defeated Trojan, but emerges as the Father of the Roman Empire. In the case of Dante’s Inferno, Dante enters the yawning pit of Hell as a confused and despairing pilgrim who has lost his way, but emerges as a renewed believer who his regained his purpose, vision and calling.”[3]

These two examples show the development a character, an individual, may undergo under such a path. This is because:

“It is dangerous thing to walk out your door, but without risk there is no real development, no self-knowledge, no awareness of the choices that one must make.”[4]

Without going on a personal quest, on a journey of this magnitude, there is no significant growth.

And isn’t that one of the ideas life is about, growth, the personal evolution of the individual?

Consider that the Road was incredibly important to Tolkien. Given its significance, Tolkien deliberately chooses to show the road in the very first chapter of Lord Of The Rings:

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can.”(I.i.35)

“Far ahead the Road has gone,” implying the Road is alive, just like life.

To hammer-down the point, Tolkien anchors the road, anchors his book in the closing chapter, sprinkling a newfound vision of what the road offers:

“Still round the corner they may wait
A new road or a secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”[6][Bold Emphasis Added]

“A day will come at last when I shall take the hidden paths”. Paths that that aren’t readily discovered but are there; paths that are waiting for discovery by the individual.

All the answers lie within those two poems, all the answers lie within the road – within life itself.

Whatever road you – the individual – choose to take will ultimately give you a broader view of the possibilities that life offers, the possibilities that your personal quest holds.

Regardless, hidden paths await; roads of self-discovery, roads of growth.

Personal roads that can only be walked by you – the individual.

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Footnotes:

[1] Louis Markos Ph.D., On The Shoulders Of Hobbits – The Road Of Virtue With Tolkien & Lewis, quoted from Lord Of The Rings, p. (I.iii.72).
[2] Ibid., pp. 41-42.
[3] Ibid., pp. 45-46.
[4] Ibid., pg. 44.
[5] Ibid., p. 59, quoted from Lord Of The Rings, p. (I.i.35).
[6] Ibid., p. 59, quoted from Lord Of The Rings, p. (VI.ix.1005).

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Suggested Reading:

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If you find value in this information, feel free to share it. This article is free and open source. All individuals have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Zy Marquiez and BreakawayIndividual.com

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About The Author:

Zy Marquiez is an avid book reviewer, inquirer, an open-minded skeptic, yogi, and freelance writer who aims at empowering individuals while also studying and regularly mirroring subjects like Consciousness, Education, Creativity, The Individual, Ancient History & Ancient Civilizations, Forbidden Archaeology, Big Pharma, Alternative Health, Space, Geoengineering, Social Engineering, Propaganda, and much more.

#Book Review: Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory | #SmartReads

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
April 12, 2019

A widely-known and timeless classic, Le Morte d’Arthur – King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table by Sir Thomas Malory is the masterpiece from which the Arthurian Legend was born.

As the definitive English-language version of the story of Arthur and his Knights, Sir Thomas Malory collated information from the historical tradition and lore that was available to him at the time.

For a book that draws from various sources, it actually reads seamlessly, which speaks of Malory’s skill in the creation of this book and the ironclad integration he undertook. It’s also worth noting that the book is written in Old English.

All components of the Arthurian Legend, from Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, the Knights of The Round Table, to Excalibur and the Quest for the Holy Grail are all contained therein. Considering the book was published over 500 years ago, it’s actually a remarkable achievement considering that there aren’t many books which appeal so much to human creativity and imagination from that specific time period. Granted, Malory drew from English and French sources for this, but it was his imagination that allowed him to make this book a finished product.

Some intriguing components of the book are the many themes the book features, which are repeatedly alluded too. Woven within the story are themes that encompass revenge, jealousy, trickery, honor and chivalry. The many quests that the Knights undertake are also a common theme in the book.

The measure of a great fiction book is how great it stokes the embers of imagination. Without a doubt, Sir Thomas Malory’s work has done all that, and much more, which is why after centuries later these stories still have a remarkable appeal to a wide-ranging audience.

As a classic adventure featuring intrigue, romance, deception, and adventure with sprinklings of magic, the legend of King Arthur has and always will be a mainstay in literature. That is because it appeals to the element of human mind in a way that many other books do not, and that is what makes it a landmark book in Mythology and Folklore. Any connoisseur of Mythology would enjoy this thoroughly.

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#Book Review: The Journey by Peter Kreeft | #SmartReads

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
April 8, 2019

Life as a journey has always been a concept that has intrigued me to no end. With that regard, the following book showcases some of the reasons why I hold such a concept with such curiosity.

The Journey by Peter Kreeft is an interesting fictional account through allegorical form of an individual, in this case the author, who seeks spiritual truth.

With his dear philosophical companion, Socrates, who is a confidant and guide by his side, the Kreeft creates a journey in which quite a few philosophies are encountered, and each philosophy is addressed as needed in order to journey towards the next step in the author’s personal journey.

Within the allegory written, the author meets thirteen different historical characters who expound their version of truth on particular philosophical ideas. These individuals are: Socrates, Epicurus, Protagoras, Diogenes, Gorgias, Democritus, Thrasymachus, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Aristotle, Moses, Joshua and C.S. Lewis. Each philosophy is explored as needed, providing valuable insights about what those philosophies really delineate.

The first half to two thirds of the book covered general philosophical concepts, while the latter offered deeper ruminations into Kreefts unabashed religious point of view through the allegory.

In essence, the book is about choosing a philosophical life in every way shape and form. That’s what appeals to me most about the book. Additionally, the concept of a life as a journey, such as what took place in Dante’s Inferno, was also rather thought-provoking.

As Kreeft notes, in life, you either have a good personal philosophy, or a bad one. This book helps the reader consider at length what type of philosophy one will choose, regardless of what point of view you come from.

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You The Individual Are Author Of Your Own Journey, Your Own Destiny

BreakawayIndividual.com
Zy Marquiez
April 5, 2019

Life is an adventure in every which way and it offers no straight roads.

There are myriad circumstances we will all face individually, but life’s roads are littered with lessons of all types, people of countless backgrounds, and fascinating circumstances that honestly make most movies and books pale in comparison. Then again, modern movies are big on content, but lack meaning and depth, much like the mainstream media. Given that, perhaps comparing life to a movie isn’t a salient analogy. That said, the sentiment is there since a movie tells a story, and we all live our own stories.

With that in mind: what’s your story? This question is for every individual reading this. More importantly, this question is literal, metaphorical, rhetorical and analogical. Why would I ask this question on multiple tiers? Because life, by its very nature, operates on multiple tiers, and each of these various tiers are significant in one way, shape or form. Only seeing (or considering) one of these tiers, is akin to only remembering 6 out of the 24 hours in your day; it is merely remembering the morning, and forgetting the afternoon, the evening, and night time. That’s a lot of to miss out on, a lot to go unconsidered.

The multiple avenues from which to consider your own life – your own story – are merely for inner rumination since (1) we as individuals – myself included – don’t tend to think of our lives as a story, (2) we tend to see life through highs and lows, static circumstances and the like, and nigh never through the full latitude of circumstances that made you the individual who you are.

The main reason I ask, “What’s your story?” is because I learned from one of the books that I purchased last fall, though it’s name escapes me at this moment, that each of us has a story to tell and those stories are woven within so much depth that it would inspire others to take deeper consideration into what every individual has gone through if people were to know what all individuals have experienced.

Along with that sentiment, another benefit of asking someone what their story is, is the fact that this question pulls the ball in the other individual’s court – it allows individuals choose what part of their story they want to focus on. Every story features endless depth once circumstances are pondered upon intricately; however, most of the time, when we engage in conversations, the questions are so narrow the only lead for a limited scope of consideration, rather than a vast ocean of possibilities to draw upon. And what better well to draw from, than the ocean of life, an individual’s life, and the endless circumstances that they have been through?

People can be caught quite by surprise when that question is asked because it’s not the standard run of the mill question most people consider. Not only is such a question nigh never asked, but the consideration of life a story is never given a second thought.

At times, it takes people a second for the question to click. Once it does, then they open up, and it’s incredibly fascinating to see what individuals first center up because (1) it will usually be something that is important to them in the grand scheme of things, or (2) something that’s important to them at the moment, such as something they are currently worrying about and so on. Either way, the answers are a gateway, an inner window to someone’s mind, someone’s soul. It’s incredible to witness, especially if their eyes light up as they tell their story. If that circumstance takes place, that’s when you know the story means a lot to them. That’s paramount. If that transformation is not magic, I don’t know what is.

Some of the most interesting parts of someone’s life, of someone’s story, are all the obstacles that individual has conquered. It’s ironic because, everyone including myself, tends to forget how many issues we have overcome. Why is that relevant? Because perhaps if we saw the obstacles we have conquered individual as significant parts of a resume of life, highlighted by everything we have ever overcome, maybe we – myself included – wouldn’t get so down on ourselves as individuals.

Maybe instead of getting dispirited at a circumstance, we wake up feeling like a million bucks every morning; perhaps we don’t allow circumstances to get the better of us because we know we’ve handled similar circumstances dozens, if not hundreds of times, and as far as you’re concerned, this current dilemma is merely the latest one, and merely just a bump in the road. NO BIG DEAL!

So go on, when life throws issues at you, treat them like dust; dust of your shoulders off, and worry not about whatever life throws at you, because ultimately, you are here. Let me say that again: you are here reading this right now.

Why is that relevant? Because not only do you have to be centered and focused to read that statement (which is one of the reasons I love reading so much, it forces the proactive engagement of the mind) but because for you to be here implies that you had to have gone through your own personal struggles, irrespective of what they have been, and come out on top. On TOP! And yet, you’re still here, aren’t you? You still have ass kicking to do and names to take? I sure hope so! If not, I’m not sure what you’re doing reading this. Maybe dancing with the stars is on? Something worthy of your time?

Or maybe we simply need to become our own stars, and instead of dancing with stars, we become the stars that dance to the tune of our own drum, in our story because nobody else can do that better than each of us individually.

Nobody can be a better you than you. Isn’t that neat?

Your life – the entire breadth and scope of it – is so damn unique that nobody has lived a similar life ever, and nobody will after your story is written in stone.

Now that you are pondering your story, are you in control of your story, or is your story in control of you? Why do I pose the question in such a manner? Because if you let the hamster wheel dictate the circumstances, that wheel is in control; but if you do not, then you are in control.

Often times we get swept up in life’s tidal wave of idiosyncrasies and just become the hamster on the wheel, rather than the one that escapes it to venture the roads of life, the winding roads that make life the adventure that it is.

Those winding roads are never straight for too long, never easy, almost ever. That ease of travel in the trail of life makes us complacent, it makes us soft. It makes us like the fighter that doesn’t spare, the knife that gets dull, it makes us incapable of operating at the ‘top of our game’.

Life’s roads are like a rollercoaster, ups and downs, twists and turns, moments of joy and moments that just make you want to puke. But when each ride in the roller coaster is done, when each road we take finishes and is conquered, isn’t that exhilarating? Isn’t each of the roads you take that much more fascinating knowing how much you overcame and how much you learned from it? It sure seems like the very definition of an adventure.

Adventures that make life that much sweeter based on what significant obstacles have been conquered. The tougher the obstacle, the more you gain from it, the more salient the lessons. Lessons woven in some of the toughest circumstances you will face, but lessons that will also become part of who you are, who you choose to become; lessons that can become foundational components of your future.

What’s your story? Or better yet, what’s your story going to be? Only you – every single one of you – know the answer to that.

But it’s sure interesting to think of life as a story, isn’t it?

What’s in the past, is in the past. The past is set in stone, but the future isn’t. It never is. And the future begins today, right now this very moment.

Be wary of the road. But remember, no matter where the road leads, life will always be an adventure; an adventure with you as the protagonist.

And you get to decided whether you slay the dragon, or not; whether you swim in the depths of the abyss, the depths of the unknown, or whether you remain on the shore, wondering where those waters lead.

Why? Because it’s your story, and you are the author of your own story, your own destiny, and you always will be.

And if you ever happen to see Bilbo or Gandalf in your travels, tell them I said hello (they really are more fascinating than most give them credit for). Why would I say that? Because as I am writing this, this is my story, and in my story I’ve met them both.

What are you going to write in yours?

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Suggested Reading:

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Piercing Perspectives #2: You The Individual Are Extraordinary
Piercing Perspectives #3: The Divide & Conquer Left Right Paradigm
Piercing Perspectives #4: Poker As A Mirror For Life
How Are Your (Emotional) Bank Accounts Doing?
The Individual, The Foundation Of Society

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About The Author:

#Quote Of The Night – #Individuality | #Divergent

“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow.”
– Vincent Van Gogh