Seek a life of comfort and pleasure, and be branded as a pebble. Fall backwards, arms outstretched, against the storms of poseidon, and grow to be a diamond. There is a certain reckless smile which is missing in these days of placid repose, where tranquility is sought out not only in our inner world but also in the outer one. It is a movement towards sterilizing and sanatizing out the wild impulses found in man and allowing the feminine impulse to unnecessarily dominate the masculine. The momentum reckons of days where peace and prosperity are permanent features of an edenic culture which resembles fiction rather than reality.

People find themselves observing the habits and lifestyle of the wealthy, eyes filled with envy and vicarious appreciation of the luxuries they themselves cannot afford. They value these external prizes, hoping for a dream to come true where pleasure alone can be the prevalent condition to savour. There is a desire for relief of the tedium of today, the boredom they seek to escape, the sameness of this morning, afternoon and evening repeating themselves endlessly, that they believe that somehow an easier life will rid them of this state. This alone is the possibility and potential in their minds, kindling repetitive thoughts which simplify the solution to naïve expectations.

Pressure and strain define a man’s true worth. They test his mantle by an objective measure. One man may prove himself competent, calm and composed under the conditions of clear skies and instantly curling like a ball when the rain begins to trickle on his head. Our posture towards this element of weather means absolutely everything. The conditions of life can take swings on a man which blow the wind right out of him. When he is down, trampled against the heels of poor circumstance, it matters more than at any other idle time if he bows in service to the needs of others. The gods watch him attentively right then and there.

It comes down to how much you can forget yourself in circumstances and conditions which require a dish made only of attention, foresight and effort. It is by taking yourself out of the equation that idle, pointless, concepts of happiness can dissolve into the nothingness that they inherently are in the first place. The narrative in our minds has been left to its own devices for far too long, festering with ideas of self-righteous and self-important beliefs which serve to do nothing more than make us endlessly unsatisfied with our common lives. A man can point his finger to blame other people, circumstances, and whatever else he can conceive of, in order to bail him out of guilt to his unhappy state.

By forsaking the urge to compare himself to others and to look upon conditions of pressure and strain as continual enablers in his own development, a man may become something actually worth its weight. He may not need to look for troubling circumstances like a madman, but nor should he walk away from them either when the day turns into night. If he grins, instead, and relaxes to the force of the storm, asking for more and pledging his commitment to take whatever life throws at him, he meets finally with the approval of the invisible lords 8 miles above. It is this sort of fearlessness, conceiving of nothing but his own presence and the factors at play in any given sober moment, which separates the boy from the man.