Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. I’m working my way through the second book in the Wheel of Time series and wanted to share a quote that I found particularly appropriate for Father’s Day.
I was first introduced to the Wheel of Time when my wife and I watched it on Amazon Prime last summer.
After we put the boys to bed, we would wade through the magical world that Robert Jordan created one episode at a time.
A broken world, doomed to repeat itself, cycle after cycle as the “wheel” turns each age. The only inhabitants of this magical realm who seem able to exert any control over the fate the wheel has laid out for them are the Aes Sedai.
The Aes Sedai are a group of women able to channel the magic of the “one power” to do incredible things.
The Aes Sedai are split into factions (ajahs) denoted by their color. Each faction slightly different in their methodology, beliefs, and purpose.
Each Aes Sedai has a male guardian, a warder, assigned to her. They are bonded to each other till death. The relationships are complicated, and while they are reciprocal in many ways, the warders are subordinate.
In ages past, there were male Aes Sedai who could also wield the one power. Theirs was slightly different than that wielded by the women.
Opposite powers but complimentary, male and female, yin and yang. But at some point ages ago, the male side screwed it up and broke the world. Now, the women are left with the pieces, trying to hold it all together.
The Aes Sedai of the red ajah do not have male warders. Their mission is to root out men who may try to channel the one power.
Any man who tries to wield the one power will cause chaos and destruction. Reaching out to the source of the one power will, in time, drive a man to madness.
The women of the red ajah find these men and “gentle” them. Cutting off their ability to touch the source so that they won’t cause any harm. The men still end up going mad.
Some Aes Sedai, particularly of the blue ajah, believe in a profecy of the dragon reborn. A man who will be able to channel the one power and will restore the world from it’s broken state and win the eternal battle against the dark one.
This was the back story given in the Amazon Prime show and tracks fairly well with the books.
The world created by Jordan and the characters that populate it are rich and enticing.
Both the books, and especially the show, have a significant feminine lean. Men break the world. Men cannot control the one power. Women are the saviors. “Gentling” bears a striking resemblance to castration. I was worried this would put me off, but i was pleasantly surprised.
The warders seem to be excellent male role models. The main characters who are male while still defering to the Aes Sedai, are anything but subordinate.
Lan, one of the warders, is training Rand, a simple sheep herder but also the dragon reborn, in swordsmanship. The scene has them practicing atop a castle tower, with the warder getting the best of the sheep herder and talking to him about the challenges that lie ahead of him.
“There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet. “
The scene came right at the end of the chapter, and it just hit me a special kind of way.
Maybe it was that I wasn’t expecting much in the way of masculine advice based on my experience thus far with the show and the first book.
Maybe it was the elegance and simplicity of the statement and the stoic and thoughtful nature of the character it was coming from.
Maybe it was the added irony from my time in Jui Jistu, where I face obstacles sitting on my butt or laying on my back.
Whatever it was, the scene, the quote, the moment created in the story, it felt significant. It resonated with me beyond just a story in a book.
The past few months have come with no shortage of challenges. I haven’t always risen to them in the way I would like. But I haven’t run from them either.
Some of my proudest moments, after the happy events of life and the triumphs and successes, have been some of my failures.
Not because of the failures themselves, but because of the way I was able to face the failure. To own it. To feel it. To grow out of it and through it.
Just like a triathlon, you put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Sitting down doesn’t get you any closer to the finish line, and there is no one coming to get you.
I wrote in this post about The Martian. You solve one problem, then the next, if you solve enough problems, you get to go home.
I think that is what Lan is trying to say. You don’t take whatever life throws at you lying down. Stay on your feet, nimble, agile, ready to adjust course. If nothing else, you go down swinging.
It’s easy to feel helpless. It’s easy to feel like you are steering into uncharted waters with strange currents. It’s easy to feel ineffective.
I hope that I can show my boys the alternative. Demonstrate for them Lan’s first rule of manhood. Cultivate in them, the attitude and ability to face the many challenges of life on their feet.
Find your footing, dig in your heels, put on a brave face for what may come. There is surely serenity in taking charge of your own destiny.
Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.
