Discovering Courage
A Small Pleasure
“That’s been my own experience. I did just what I wanted to do. It takes a little courage at first, because who the hell wants you to do just what you want to do; they’ve all got lots of plans for you. But you can make it happen”
- Joesph Campbell
When I began journaling today, my pen took me down a road less traveled — a journey about courage, and what it must mean for the Modern Man.
Two hundred years ago, I imagine the forces that compelled us to be courageous were ones of survival. We huddled up in tribes seeking protection from the wrath brought down by nature’s minions and “the evil that men do.”
Today’s Man cannot be any different. He is pampered and securely fastened to the couch. Phone glued to his hand and eyes on his television. He makes his way through life in a pattern dictated by modern culture. A car ride down to his place of work earns him a living deposited in a secure bank account. He ventures out on sanctioned interactions with other Modern Men with no danger in sight: there is no rival tribe set out to invade his world any time soon. Protection is a call away, and the court system is in place to prosecute those who cross him. Life indeed is safe for this new-age man, but why does he still feel so endangered?
With a new way of life, comes a new challenge that calls for an atypical form of courage. Modern Man has relinquished his bow and arrow, and many of his kin have abandoned their archaic arsenal and their bravery. Modern Man is still afraid nonetheless — afraid of himself. He sinks in fetal position down his fluffy bed; his state lingers in places never seen before by his monkey mind. The danger feels similar to a lion sighted behind a bush, silhouettes of monsters dancing before him on the bedroom wall. Modern Man is plagued by anxiety — why he does not know.
“Like most everyone else the depressed person is a coward who will not stand alone on his own center, who cannot draw from within himself the necessary strength to face up to life. So he embeds himself in others; he is sheltered by the necessary and willingly accepts it. But now his tragedy is plain to see: his necessity has become trivial, and so his slavish, dependent, depersonalized life has lost its meaning. It is frightening to be in such a bind.”
- Ernest Becker
From a young age, this unsuspecting soul is rewarded for his individualism and encouraged to stand on his own two feet. He feels alone in this world, encountering a cruel system that does not seem to celebrate the innate good in him. He is taught that modern-day grind is that of conniving mastery — belonging to a race that weeds out the centered, the compassionate, the collective. “only the good die young,” he is told. Modern Man is taught the skills to succeed in the spirit of cunning cannibalism. He is forced to stoop over his fellow man so that he can live. Modern Man is cornered into a position of which he is not comfortable: for his nature guides him not to cheat and lie and be miserable, but it seems that he must.
This Modern Man is lost in his own individuality, for he has been conditioned to seek validation from external sources. He is confused and anxious, acquiring pleasures afforded to him by the world that surrounds him. He frantically tries to pass the time: TV binge-watching, weekend comatose at the local pub, getting lost in the desire of overexposed Instagram models. The distractions are endless, and they pile up like a landfill of garbage that seeps its toxins into the core of his soul. He is unaware of the debauchery that is eroding his purity, for he is only a body detached from his mind.
Modern Man acquires his beliefs from the good chaps over in Hollywood who sugarcoat love and courage with poisonous scripts and intoxicating actors — “Is this how a man should be?” Modern Man asks. His knowledge is further skewed while growing up watching porn, thinking that intimacy is a theatrical charade of silicon acrobatics and plastic chauvinism. Modern Man’s generation is damaged and in need of immediate guidance. Where can a man find salvation, he wonders; when a trip to the psychiatrist’s office only yields a hefty bill and a shaking bottle of prescription drugs?
Has anyone taught the Modern Man what it means to be happy? Happiness class was perhaps cut out of the modern curriculum — if it was taught, he certainly have missed it. Mom and Dad were perhaps too busy dealing with their own demons of the modern race. God only knows they tried their best: the mortgage has been paid and safety afforded. Anything more than that is considered a luxury: love, awareness, and a seed of spirituality didn’t quite make it to the list of basic necessities of children’s rights — for these values do not immediately pay the bills, so, for the time being, they can wait.
Modern Man is thus empty on the inside, for his happiness is sought in fragile places: acquiring possessions he doesn’t need, consuming knowledge that won’t serve, digesting jobs that don’t fulfill, and washing it all down with substances that won’t cure. Modern Man is frightened by his own shadow — all while the courage he needs is nowhere to be found in this world of empty abundance.
“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.”
- Terence McKenna
Modern Man seeks the courage to sit solemnly, in a room with no lights, praying for guidance. He needs the courage to cry out of sheer helplessness, for he is only a man engaging in a rough battle to combat his time. Modern Man’s definition of courage needs a makeover as it can only arrive from a pure heart and a clear mind. Modern Man needs to meditate in surrender, admitting to some higher power that his only sin was succumbing to the disturbing noise that bewilders his very meaning.
Some of his kin might get lucky, they find their way to meaning through purpose, others through love, and a few through suffering. Every man has his story; every man has his struggle; every man can develop his meaning. Life indeed is full of courage for those who look. Our Modern Man is innately angry nonetheless; he is hungry; he is lost. Modern Man feels cheated, but he doesn’t know why he’s been duped. The years go by, and he wakes up one day in his midlife still an alien: “I should have figured it out by now,” he hums to himself. He cannot quite grasp that all he needed to do, this Modern Man, was admit to his higher self that he needs help, that he cannot do this on his own. He must acknowledge that money, mindless sex, and other empty temptations are not the answer. The proof is right here in the pudding: he has been chasing empty pleasures all his life, and like the good citizen that he is, bought things on credit, took out loans, visited theme parks, and flew around in planes — but he is still lost. All this time spent watching the looping news cycle did not yield any epiphanies; for the last time he picked up a revealing book or learned a creative skill was decades ago, he admits. He understands nothing of love, for if he did, his marriage wouldn’t be at a paralyzing standstill. He can probably kick the can a few years down the road till he retires and then perhaps can find the time to discover himself finally. Alternatively, he can act now and start by digging through the pile of garbage in his mind in the search for the courage he needs to liberate his soul.
Modern Man is lost because he does not understand what his meaning in life is — no one asked him to ponder on it, not even once. He lacks the tools to levitate in spirit, to go inwards, to listen to what the heart is calling him to be.
When this man finds his courage in his purpose, he will finally find himself.
Then, Modern Man’s courage shall transcend the city streets that lead to office buildings, beyond the status of designer clothes and powerful positions. Modern Man’s courage is born out of the innate desire to feel his noble calling and to manifest his destiny. In this courage, a pleasure is born from pure happiness of being precisely what he should be: a man of purpose.
