Loos’d Absolute and Imaginary

    I was at the Hallmark store on Sunday and admiring the Peanuts display when I saw a little snippet of a Walt Whitman poem. Peanuts caught my eye as I am a fan of the cartoon, and relate so well to different characters there. My hair is naturally curly when I let it grow out, I want to believe in the Great Pumpkin, and I have a blanket that a comfort. It was given by a friend and it’s super soft and warm. Anyway, amidst the Snoopy and Lucy displays, Walt Whitman made an appearance. It was just a morsel, a fragment of a larger poem. The words, scripted in blank ink italics, said “From this hour, freedom! From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines.” It’s from Song of the Open Road and continues on with the poem.

   I just loved the images in the words; they just popped in my brain like little kernels of ideas. Loos’d of limits and imaginary lines. Am I loos’d, do I see myself free? As much as I would probably like to say yes, I’m going to say no. I’m aware of the imaginary lines, most of us run into them every once in a while. The people goo we step in without being aware that it is there. Imaginary lines exist on maps, not just of the international variety but of the local as well. And what is freedom? Freedom is not going your own way and being completely heedless of everyone else. That is slavery to self and selfishness. Freedom is serving, is giving, and is consideration. It’s not being a door mat; it’s not being someone that people wipe their feet on.
     I think I need to pay closer attention to the imaginary lines and limits in my life. Some of those should probably be loos’d.

Vespucci & the Other Dragons

My friends have grown accustomed to occasionally seeing me wearing a dragon pendant, being greeted upon entering the house by a large red Chinese dragon (a.k.a Vespucci), or seeing a sign over the door… Beyond this point, There be dragons. It was actually reading about cartographers of the early Middle Ages that got me started on dragons. Having a love of history, and of maps, it resonated with me to learn how cartographers used dragons and other monsters on their maps. Beyond This Point – beyond the known there lies the mystery and the fear of the unknown. The unknown can be scary and difficult, and there may be dragons. Thus, the second half of the warning message, to keep an eye out for those dragons.

Vespucci, named after the map maker of course, came from a trip to Chicago for some training. It wasn’t the trip or the training that was the unknown, it was what it represented. There were now new elements for me of responsibility and expectations, I wasn’t sure where it would lead, or not lead. And, dashing into a store quickly I saw this red dragon with a big toothy grin looking at me which just had to come home with me. Tucked under my arm, then sitting on top of the hotel TV for the night, Vespucci came home to rest on top of a bookcase. He might look a little scary to someone new, but those big teeth are just showing in his smile. It was kind of like that change. It looked scary, but really it wasn’t too bad.

The sign actually came first. It is just a board, painted tans fading toward a lighter shade in the center. In the cursive the words reside that started me with maps and dragons in the first place, "Beyond this point, there be dragons". It’s sort of like a warning and a dare all at the same time. Notice – you may get eaten alive by the fire breathing scaly creature with wings and a wicked temper around the next corner or… maybe you won’t. For those that are curious about what could be, it’s the call of adventure. Forget the apple a day; it’s an adventure a day – big ones, little ones. What secret is the dragon keeping close, what treasure? It’s not easy to finish that quest; normally there are some battles along the way, or at least scraped knees on difficult geographic terrain. But, there is treasure to be found in the journey itself, in the pursuit. Just as much fortune as that the dragon protects at times. Grad school – the journey was itself the reward, learning, and working on projects. Oh, the calloused brain cells occurred when pouring over economics for hours at a time. That quest looked like a pile of paper and books, some of them torn up in disgust at a formula that just didn’t formulate, gallons of ink, and flash drives filling up an empty key ring. But, the MBA was awarded – I succeeded in working the puzzle that the dragon had put forth and captured the treasure for myself.

To celebrate that degree, it only seemed fitting to wear a dragon for the hooding. How apropos, a dragon and a hooding – they sound like they go together. Actually, the hooding ceremony was beautiful and quite scholastically appropriate. But, under that swath of fabric, there rested on my collar bone a necklace leading to a dragon, swirled into her shape and looking as if she were flying purely for the joy of it. She is a fire breathing dragon I think, because I’ve been burned a few times during this process. Burned out, burned up, burned through, but mainly burned out.

I’m not sure what my next dragon expedition will be, if it will be a friendly find like Vespucci or something more difficult. But, I am already beyond the point of known, and now what was unknown has been mapped. Now, I move farther afield and will see what new adventures and journeys wait for me.