What if you were told that to continue along any journey, you first had to visit Hades to seek the wisdom and guidance of Tiresias, the mythical blind prophet, the Seer. Do you think your navigation system would help? Think you would ask Siri?
Probably not. Visits to the Land of the Dead aren’t on most people’s itinerary as part of some side trip, an excursion to see something talked about like the three-headed dog. Boat rides on Charon’s ferry are also not popular. No, we like to visit lands that, if not currently mapped, at least are mappable. Maps enable us to return; they are strings laid in a labyrinth. One goes in and follows the string back out.
We’re used to navigational aids: Maps, signposts, friendly-guy-on-the-sidewalk-eager-to-point-out-a-location (“Just go down this street two blocks and turn left”), and, of course, Siri and the GPS system that mysteriously combine to point you toward your goal. But going to Hades?
After a year in the palace of Circe, Odysseus and his men wanted to resume their voyage toward home, and Circe was ready to release them but only on the condition of a visit to the Underworld. Concerned about going where no mortal goes unless it’s on a one-way trip and befuddled by the mystery of the location, Odysseus naturally asks, “But who will be my pilot?”
Whereas it is true that we are all sailing on a one-way voyage, most of us make many side trips, all on two-way passage tickets, before we reach that ultimate destination. For all of those side trips, all of us might ask as Odysseus asks, “Who is my pilot?”
What people, ideas, or even emotions have been pilots in your life? For which of the completed trips would you choose, in retrospect, a different pilot had you only known the nature of your destination and the path on which the pilot guided you?
Have any side trips to places, events, or ideas planned at this time? Who will be your pilot?
Probably not. Visits to the Land of the Dead aren’t on most people’s itinerary as part of some side trip, an excursion to see something talked about like the three-headed dog. Boat rides on Charon’s ferry are also not popular. No, we like to visit lands that, if not currently mapped, at least are mappable. Maps enable us to return; they are strings laid in a labyrinth. One goes in and follows the string back out.
We’re used to navigational aids: Maps, signposts, friendly-guy-on-the-sidewalk-eager-to-point-out-a-location (“Just go down this street two blocks and turn left”), and, of course, Siri and the GPS system that mysteriously combine to point you toward your goal. But going to Hades?
After a year in the palace of Circe, Odysseus and his men wanted to resume their voyage toward home, and Circe was ready to release them but only on the condition of a visit to the Underworld. Concerned about going where no mortal goes unless it’s on a one-way trip and befuddled by the mystery of the location, Odysseus naturally asks, “But who will be my pilot?”
Whereas it is true that we are all sailing on a one-way voyage, most of us make many side trips, all on two-way passage tickets, before we reach that ultimate destination. For all of those side trips, all of us might ask as Odysseus asks, “Who is my pilot?”
What people, ideas, or even emotions have been pilots in your life? For which of the completed trips would you choose, in retrospect, a different pilot had you only known the nature of your destination and the path on which the pilot guided you?
Have any side trips to places, events, or ideas planned at this time? Who will be your pilot?
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