Catching Fireflies

The Firefly or lightning bug is a bug which glows in the darkness, with a light that comes from within. It has often been thought that fairies, willow wisps, and other magical creatures rumored to grant the catcher wishes got their origins from our superstitious ancestors seeing fireflies.  Owl City's hit single "Fireflies" draws on this belief and makes the analogy that fireflies are the dreams and imagination of children, or the "Magic" of childhood. I find this thought very illuminating(pardon the pun), for as children we have so many dreams of what our life can become with the infinite possibilities of our future. We catch a few of these "fireflies" place them in a jar and they help guide us into adulthood. 

As we get older it seems as though many of those fireflies from our past have died or moved on to greener pastures.  The magic of our childhood is spent with many if not all of those dreams having seemingly vanished and have gone extinct along with that childhood version of ourselves that dreamt  them.  We no longer sit in our basements pretending to be a movie-star or astronaut for it feels as though that ship sailed long ago.  The room goes dark for us and we sit in the darkness.

We need not sit in the darkness when all we really need to do is dream once again and find those fireflies to light up those dark places.  It is important to have these dreams of a better reality for ourselves, for that is where all of  a humans hope resides.  These dreams which spurn our hope can be caught and placed into a jar through making goals to make our future better.  So when the lights next go out and things get hard in our lives forcing us to lose our vision, we have a light to remind us of what might be in our futures which give us more of a reminder of why we brave the darkness.

The world is under the misconception that the way a person is able to become adult is through taking that dreaming child inside of them to the river behind their house and drowning them.  Just be an adult and accept things the way they are and accept your lot in life.   That may be a way of adulting, I'm just not so sure it is a healthy way of adulting.  Maybe instead of burying that piece of us in a unmarked grave that only we know where it rests, when next that child peeks around the corner of our minds we invite them to take a seat with us, we place our owns around them and feel, cry, and dream together. 

The world may be to harsh and cold to let that dreamer survive, but are we?

Prepare the Diving-Bell

The word "diving-bell" can have several meanings, the first of which is that it is a device that divers use to travel into the depths of the oceans.  Another meaning and the one I first thought of when hearing the word is the bell that is rung by Navy Seal recruits when they come up for air to denote they have "tapped out" and given up on their diving/water treading exam denoting failure. In life it can feel as though you are drowning in the depths of your own personal ocean.  Screaming for air under the water anchored to the bottom under the weight of your responsibilities, and demands placed on you by life.  At time it seems one can only receive that rest and breath through ringing the bell and tapping out of their current life.   Doesn't a person deserve a breather every now and then? Does coming up for air mean a person is damaged or less capable than others who seem to tread the water so easily?

The answer is "No" to both of the questions asked earlier.  To understand this fact a person should simply think of why they took to the ocean in the first place.  A man dives into their own personal oceans as a form of personal discovery, to see unseen things and test their mettle against the rages of their own personal nature.  Man was never meant to survive in the depths of the oceans without a vessel to attached themselves to.  It is this fact that it is against our nature to survive under water which leads us to venture there in the first place, the excitement the struggle against nature.  As a Navy Seal in training it is about growing and being able to hold their breath longer and coming up for air having accomplished a little more each time.  This overtime creates a more capable swimmer and a person more suited to the foreign environment of the ocean.

I remember watching a documentary a few years back on diving into caves dug by the ocean.  In this documentary they come across the body of the diver in a 70's style wet suit floating in the depths.  Due to the dangerous nature of the diving scenario they had undertaken they had to leave the body down there hidden in the depths for others to find.  Seeing the body in the depths didn't make the divers gloat, nor did they find it funny, but it served as a reminder to each of them how everyone risks the same thing (failure) when they take to the ocean.   Divers know there will only be so much time under the depths that they can handle before they end up becoming a part of it.

So prepare both iterations of the diving bell any time you take to the ocean.  Prepare for success and to see the depths of the ocean (and part's of yourself) that you have never seen before.  Also be prepared to ring the diving-bell, and admit to others that you are human and need the same air that everyone else does.  Personal successes and growth are all one part personal accomplishment and equal part personal failures.  If there weren't failures there would be no reason for any personal success.  No-one ever finds the colors and treasures locked deep inside their own personal oceans and lives, without braving the risk and depths of failures.