Life As An Action Hero

"Let me strive every moment of my life, to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it.
Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man."
- Doc Savage

Here are five things I CANNOT do as a real life action hero:

1. I cannot outrun a fireball.
2. I cannot survive a hail of gunfire by ducking behind a small chair, car door, or immersing myself in water.
3. I cannot hold onto someone dangling over a ledge, window sill, waterfall, or bridge for very long.
4. I cannot survive a multi car pile up with only a small, sexy cut above one of my eyebrows.
5. I cannot utter one or two clever sentences and have woman immediately begin to take their clothes off. (This one, however, is still open for debate. I AM a writer, after all.)

Here are five things that I CAN do as a real life action hero:

1. Be honorable in all that I say and do.
2. Live by a personal creed: "Dare to dream. Fight to feel. Live to die."
3. Have a 'cool' sounding name: Honor Knight (Cool sounding to me, anyway. I'm the one who lives with it.)
4. Be fearless, in shape, and dressed accordingly when adventure calls.
5. Inspire others.

As I've mentioned previously, many of my male role models as a child were action heroes from comics, movies, and literature. So I suppose it's only fitting in the definition of the self that I would eventually model my life after one. However, I found the external trappings of action hero far easier to define than the internal ones. My weapon of choice (the sword), adventure gear (cargo pants, adventure vest, bandanna), and 'cool' adventure name (Honor Knight) came more easily to me than dedicating my life to living honorably in all my actions and words. It would take many years and many burned bridges before I finally allowed my internal self to match the external self.

Not having to live within the lies we create for ourselves can be very liberating. Years ago I may have had the spirit of an action hero, but lacked the courage to live up to those high ideals. Now my mind, body, and soul are fused together and ready for all that the 'Verse has to throw at me.

We are who we choose to be, and therein lies the happiness. So yes, I do still get chuckles over my name, weapon of choice, and appearance, but that's okay. I'm the one who has to live with me, and I stand tall, proudly defined in this life. Besides, the world needs more action heroes.

Now if only there was some way I could get my own action figure...

Passionate Maintenance

"Passion is the element in which we live; without it, we hardly vegetate."
- Lord Byron

I vividly remember an instructor I once had while training for the Smith System of driving. He was a tall, barroom brawl, burly man. Bushy mustache, wild hair. Clearly someone who has seen more than a few road miles in his time. What made him stand out even more than his appearance was his training technique. He didn't simply read off a bunch of statistics in that I'm-so-bored-with-my-job monotone voice we've all heard at one point or another in our travels. If that were the case, I surely wouldn't be writing about him now. And don't call me Shirley. His approach was slightly different...

He screamed at us. A LOT. He yelled, laughed, ranted, jumped up and down, threw chairs, and yelled some more. This would go on almost non stop over the course of two, eight hour training classes. Many of us thought the man was either on some kind of medication, or off some kind of medication. Either way, we certainly couldn't ignore him, and had no choice but to listen to what the man had to say.

Three years later, not only do I still remember that instructor, but I still actively utilize the safe driving techniques he taught us in that class, and because of his unorthodox method of teaching, I have avoided several near accidents on the road since then. He made me a better driver. Why? Because of his fearless passion for safe driving and safe drivers.

You see, he wasn't crazy at all. He was passionate for what he did. Truly passionate. That guy had his inner fire burning so hot that we all felt the heat. However, I've come to discover that passion only stays around if we actively tend to it, like a roaring campfire. We have to keep adding metaphorical 'logs' to keep it going. If not, the fires of passion will simply smolder and die out. Passion is not a given. It's there for the taking, but you have to tend to it, and if it does go out, you have to find some kindling to get it roaring once again.

Passionate maintenance is just as important for the balance of the soul as an oil change is for your car. It keeps them both moving forward, and as well know, that is the only direction we can (and must) go. If you let your passion die (be it love for work or someone else), it is your responsibility to get the fire going again. You can't wait around for passion (or anything else, for that matter), just like you can't wait around for firewood to spontaneously combust. It takes action on your part to get it going, then it takes maintenance to keep it going. Whether that maintenance takes the form of attending a film festival (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), or being inspired by a movie trailer, it's up to you to generate the heat that fuels the soul.

So yes, sometimes you have to yell, laugh, rant, jump up and down, and throw chairs to keep that fire burning, and that's okay. It's your passionate maintenance, and it may result in the creation of art, the bonding of love, or the saving of lives on the open road.

I owe my life to one man's passion for safety, and I was only in his company for sixteen hours.

Imagine the effect that our passion could have on those we see everyday...

Can You Hear Me Now?

About.com has this to say about Mercury Retrograde:

This happens three to four times per year, when the planet Mercury slows down, and appears to stop (station) and move backward (retrograde). It's an optical illusion, since there is forward movement, like speeding by a slow-moving train -- as it recedes, it appears to go backward.

Since Mercury rules communication, it's said that everything goes haywire in that area -- emails get deleted or bounced back, mail is returned, calls go out into the ethers, etc. Some people find that their computers go on the fritz or phone lines go down. I've never seen the hard data on this, so make your own observations. It does seem though that miscommunications abound during the retrograde period.

Mercury retrograde gives us time to catch up with ourselves, and to look back. Something from the past might return in a different form. This can mean people, ideas or buried insights that need to surface for you to move forward. Often it's felt as a contemplative time, depending on the sign, a chance to go over old ground again, to claim what you missed the first time.

I first came across the concept of Mercury Retrograde while living amongst a Pagan community. Unfortunately, Pagans often get lumped in with Witchcraft and practitioners of the Dark Arts. The reality is far less exciting, as these gentle earth worshipers are more artsy craftsy folk who are simply more in tune with nature's energies. While some people celebrate Easter and Christmas, Pagans celebrate Maypole and Yule. So no, it wasn't like living with the three sisters from "Charmed".

I like the idea of a period of inward reflection, a 'time out' for the soul, if you will. We need these moments in our lives to rebalance ourselves before we can move forward again. It's rather easy to get stuck in your own head, as even I would discover recently. It took my own fearless copilot to point out that I wasn't flying my ship as I should be in this current period of Mercury Retrograde, which runs from September 7th to the 29th. I had been disconnected, my ship on autopilot. She effectively communicated this to me, and I was able to immediately see the disconnection and take steps to correct it.

That's another great thing about this period of introspection. It's gives us the opportunity to work on our effective communication skills with each other. A time to say clearly what we mean so there are no mixed signals or crossed wires. Water can flow effortlessly over the rocks. Those lost TV receptions, dropped cell phone calls, and lost emails are actually a blessing, so embrace them. The energy shifts, nudging us to find ways to communicate more honestly (or honorably) in this life.

I had been walking one day a week sans musical accompaniment in an effort to remain connected in the moment, but I think I'll leave the music home for the duration of the Retrograde and listen to my inner voice for all that it has to say. Yes, I know that Kenny Loggins still wants me to fly the "Danger Zone", but I'm sure even Kenny landed his jet once in a while to contemplate the setting of the sun.