The Day the Rain Turned To Snow

Originally posted on myspace on Monday, January 14, 2008

I remember, I used that for a title because that’s what happend on the day I wrote this blog…

Once again I feel the need to blog. It happens.  This is kind of on the same subject as my warrior-poet blog, this kind of being where I got the idea from.

    Anyway, I’ve been thinking alot lately about the age old story of the warrior, who saves the princess from the evil monster.  This story, although it seems kind of cheesy or even mundane from our standpoint has a very deep analogy that came to my attention a few months ago.

    This fairy-tale is a story that transcends time and culture.  It has taken different forms throughout the ages, such as the monster being a fierce dragon in medieval times, or a villian of the old west.  Although the characters and settings have been changed to accomadate different cultures and periods, the substance doesn’t change.

    The story has three main entities, which all represent different aspects of ourselves.  First of all the monster, or dragon as I’ll call him just for fun, represents  any negativity in ourselves.  Any time we settle for less, tell ourselves we’re not capable of something, or even give in to our fears, or laziness, the dragon has succeeded.  The dragon’s goal is to keep us from attaining what we want out of life, what will truly make us happy. 

    Only people who know how to be the warrior, can conquor that dragon.  The hero of the story is a warrior because it takes courage, a strong will and an indomitable spirit to rise to the challenge that separates us from our goals.  The warrior is pure Yang energy if you haven’t realized it already.  He knows only conflict. War is his profession, and he is an expert at it.  His unbreakable will and unbeatable combat prowess are what separates him from lesser men, who would either be too overwhelmed or simply outmatched by the dragon.  The Warrior is the only one who could save the Princess.

   Now, the Princess in the story is not a secondary character at all.  She isn’t just a pretty excuse for the writer to blab about a mighty warrior and the epic battle he has with the dragon.  The Princess is another aspect of ourselves, as I mentioned above.  If the Warrior is 100% Yang, the the Princess is absolute Yin.  She is the extreme opposite of the Warrior in that, if he is all strength and power, she is sensitivity, creativity, and the ability to dream and gain joy out of life.  The Warrior knows how to kill and destroy, he is a master of war.  The Princess is an artist of peace, she knows how to love and how to create.

    You see, the Princess could never stand up to the dragon, she knows only softness and love, and those will not stop the dragon.  But at the same time, after the Warrior has defeated the dragon he would not know how to have happiness, he doesn’t know what to do when there is no longer a tyrant to defeat.  The Warrior can only be truly happy with the Princess.

   So basically, we all have to have the strength and courage to overcome obstacles in every day life.  Or even rise to bigger more daring challenges, if we feel that we want the outcome bad enough.  But at the same time, we have to know how to get the most out of our successes and truly enjoy and be happy with what we’ve fought to achieve.  We need to have an equal balance of the warrior’s power and the princess’ grace, if we want to get the most out of life.

I was intrigued by this subject roughly a year ago or so, from the book, On the Warrior’s Path by Daniel Bolelli

Anyway, that’s mah blog, for now.  I’ve been meaning to blog on Morihei Ueshiba, or O Sensei, the founder of Aikido and one of my personal heroes.  But their is just too much to say about the man, and I’m finding it difficult to get it all organized up in the old noggin to write anything meaningful and not just jargon.  Maybe I will attempt something in the near future…

Jared Freitas