Everyday Canvas

Remember Icarus?

Prompt: "You can either see yourself as a wave in the ocean or you can see yourself as the ocean." Oprah Winfrey What are your thoughts about this?

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Oprah insists this is all about how one sees oneself. That is, you either believe you can do nothing and take in on the chin and roll with what is thrown at you or you believe you can change things and fight for things larger than life.

I believe Oprah was talking about herself and where life took her and her role in it. She means to say we become what we believe we are; although, from birth on, we are all told what to believe and what not to believe. Thus, we are all brainwashed at one time or another.

Yet, those who are crowned as highly successful, like Oprah, realize what it is they are being forced into believing, fight against it, and change such beliefs about themselves. Even if this takes guts to do, it gives them a certain vision to go after their desires, rejecting the limits they are made to stay in and they aspire to do most wonderful things that are unheard of.

This is what I think Oprah is saying. My thoughts on the subject, however, differ from hers somewhat. Although I trust the notion that you become what you believe you are, not everyone has the mind and body, let alone guts, to put up such big fights. That Oprah was successful in her quest doesn’t mean that everyone else will.

Some people who believed they can do big things have perished on the way. In Greek mythology, a metaphorical example to this is Icarus whose father fashioned waxen wings for him to escape from Minos’s prison. Overcome with the hubris that he could fly, Icarus soared into the sky and flew too close to the sun, which melted his wings and he fell into the sea and drowned.

Thus, I think it is good to believe in oneself and work hard toward what one wants, together with the acceptance of the dangers ahead and one’s own limits in overcoming them.
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