Lesson ᚦ of ᚨ Lessons

"All our journeys are in the mind."

Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) to Ragnar Lothbrok (Travis Fimmel)

Vikings

Season 4, Episode 11

"The Outsider"

written by 

Michael Hirst

I've been thinking about this kind of thing more and more lately. How things in the exterior world (reality, or, if you prefer, "reality") matter so little. How all meaning is implied rather than inferred, existential rather than ontological. 

We live in a world in which 70,000 1 people will pay $85 2 apiece to see twenty-two very big men chase a ball around a grass field. And almost 21 million people 3 will watch this on television at home. 4 And that is considered to be an acceptable--fun, fulfilling, etc.--way to spend three or four hours of one's time on earth. Meanwhile, sitting alone in a room and reading for three or four hours is widely regarded as a waste of time and at least a bit pathetic--at least in my experience as a reader (fifty-five years or so) and as a teacher of English (twenty-three years).

Do you remember the Robert DeNiro film, The King of Comedy? Near the end of the movie, Rupert Pupkin (DeNiro) says, "Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." And what he means is that appearing on television for one night is worth more than all of the nights he spent in his basement talking to cardboard cut outs of celebrities--and all of the days ahead of him in prison--rolled together. But why? Because we seek validation from others. Because without the attention of other people, nothing we do is worthwhile. 

And yet . . . my autistic daughter, Jacqueline-Wan Kenobi, likes to spend vast amounts of her time playing with her dolls in her room, having them talk to each other in different voices, and not only does she not need validation or notice from anyone else, she won't even allow it. Young kids can do that, too, but most of us outgrow the need for self-reliance and anxiously embrace the judgment of The Other. Please make me feel bad about myself, Sir or Madam.

But when it comes down to it, all our journeys are in our mind, aren't they? (Or, if you're into Bishop Berkeley, maybe that should be "All our journeys are in the mind of God." Which is pretty much the same thing.)

1  Average attendance at 2015 NFL game.

2  Average cost of 2014 NFL game. 

3  Average tv audience of 2015 NFL game.
4. And I am one of that number many a time--this is not about that.