Icarus

For my English class, I have been studying poetry based on the Greek mythological character, Icarus. In summary, he is trying to escape from the island of Crete. His father is an inventor of sorts and crafts Icarus wings made of feathers and wax. Once the "flying machine" is created, the father instructs Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, or its heat will melt the wax and Icarus will go plummeting into the sea below. He also tells Icarus not to fly too low to the water, because then his wings would become weighed down and he would drown.

In the end, Icarus makes a foolish decision and flies too close to the sun and tragically plummets into a watery grave: the sea below.

A poem I found particularly striking this week was "Musee des Beaux Arts". I forget the poet's name off the top of my head...I think it's W.H. Auden. Anyway, the poem itself is really quite interesting. It's short--only two stanzas long. The first stanza discusses the life of Jesus, and how many people did not notice the miraculous things or the "dreadful martyrdom" he experienced, because their lives were too busy to truly see.

The second stanza brings Icarus into play. There's this painting by Brueghel (I think he may be Belgian), that depicts the demise of Icarus. In the painting, there are people walking around and going about their own business, and it seems as if they do not even notice Icarus' white legs, sticking out of the sea.



The point is, we pass people whose lives are falling to pieces on the proverbial street every day. Sometimes the catastrophes are obvious, and maybe we choose not to get involved or to see, because we don't like being uncomfortable. Or maybe, sadly enough, sometimes we are just truly too narcissistic to see past our own problems.

I know that the next time I feel like my world is crumbling, I want someone to notice, and to be there with me.

I hope that I can be the kind of person, with the help of Christ, who isn't afraid to be inconvenienced.

So go ahead, inconvenience me!