not wild, but pets...

From a little different angle, I might compare my life as a christian and daughter of christian parents to that of a dog. I was raised to serve a master- to be at his beck-and-call. Life was limited to the back yard-- watching the birds fly overhead or watching the squirrels dance in the treetops, just out of reach. Occasionally I got out for walks but I was often overwhelmed by it and became terribly afraid of the great outdoors, preferring to nap in a sunny spot inside.

Doesn't sound too bad you say?

Yet unlike the dog, my master was not real. There was no one feeding me. Like the wild animals I still had to find sustenance. I was not able to stay indoors all the time, bathed and cared for by the kind hands of a smarter being.

No, for those who serve Christ, or for that matter follow Buddha or Allah-- whatever heavenly deity they believe in order to keep their world tidy and safe-- life is lived with the same chores and burdens that the wild animals have in order to survive. They don't understand this. They delude themselves into thinking they are the free ones, but in fact they are more like Lions in the zoo or a dog in the back yard-- safe from nothing really other than the fears in their mind.

They will never experience the freedom of bounding over boulders or chasing small game.

Cody realizes that following his bliss does not come without the burden of survival but he is committed to following his bliss-- to being a lion in his heart.

The Phoenix

When asked what bird a person would choose to be, one responded, "A phoenix".

Having a special affinity for the Egyptian myths and archeology, I was reading on this site http://www.livius.org/phi-php/phoenix/phoenix.html to find out a bit more than the average Harry Potter book will tell you concerning the origins of the legendary flighted creature.

Mythology is an important part of culture... The stories we tell ourselves help to define who we are and what we will do in and with our lives. Recovering an understanding the power of myth helps to place them in the proper perspective (for instance, understanding the bible in a similar vein as Greek mythology would be a much healthier attitude for those christians who want the bible to be GOD'S WORD.) while recovering ancient stories of the goddess of sexuality would help us recover from the repressed sexuality that christianity has imprinted on the American conscience.

Even feminists have rejected the inherent sensuality of humanity, preferring to buy into the "sex is bad and as such, women are always victimized by sex" mentality. To my mind, this means a rejection of self and worse, allowing religion to dominate and define who women and men should be and how they relate to each other.

what is success?

For a writer (of which community I fancy myself to be a part of on a good day-- Like Seamus in 'Key West' my response to the comment, "A writer?" would be "Yeah... somedays... sort of... no"), as it is in many other artistic fields, it is difficult to balance the desire for an audience and to be a bestselling writer with the greater goal of being true to oneself-- and offering the best one has to offer. One might compare Hemingway and Fitzgerald... but in an age when bestsellers are written by such as John Grisham or Stephanie Meyer, Hemingway looks considerably more challenging than he was considered during his heyday. The challenge is however to curb, somehow, the desire to be number one on the Barnes and Noble list and reach for something better, to create something that will challenge the mind and heart. I don't know if I can or ever will attain that which some call "great literature" but I do know that to present less than the best that I am capable of is to sell out which ultimately makes the work meaningless.

Strong words?? perhaps...

but something to keep at heart.