I want to be a Warrior

  

  Lately, I have been passing the time by watching TV with my wife.  It's not all we do, but I am pretty sure our favorite thing to do is snuggle and laugh and just watch a show together.  Now that she has finals approaching and projects due, I have to force her sometimes into the back room so that she will paint.  The problem is, in order to not become a distraction, I have to keep myself preoccupied.  So what have I been doing to stay out of her way?  Playing video games.

  Blehg...  Video games.  As you can tell, I have a love-hate relationship with these amazing pieces of work.  I love the art, story, design, and not to mention the play-ability of video games.  At one point, I convinced myself that I wanted to make them for a living.  In fact, I still do sometimes.  I don't think that will ever go away, but I realized it wasn't for me.  I want to be so much more than a producer of a luxurious pastime.

  I have been intrigued lately with the idea of "the Warrior."  In video games, the hero is usually a warrior of some kind (think ninja's and knights or superheroes.)  Well, instead of making warriors, I have been compelled by the idea to become one instead.  Not just any warrior though.  Specifically the one in my head;  The ideal warrior that I have totally made up from my years and years of playing video games, watching shows, and reading books.  Let me tell you about this guy...

  A true warrior is several things, but he would follow a creed or code if you will.  After many hours of thinking on the train and on my morning walks to work, the following are what I have concluded to be the attributes of that code.

1. Courage

2. Honour

3. Physical Strength

4. Wisdom

5. Spirituality

6. Endurance

  Sure a list is great but what does it all mean?  Indulge me a minute.

 Courage

  A warrior must first have courage because without it, the first step on the path to anywhere would never be taken and thus the other attributes would never be of any worth.  What is wisdom without the courage to speak it?  What is Honour without the courage to uphold it?  What is Spirituality without the courage to stand alone in it?  You get my point I hope.  Courage is the key to making everything else active and usable in our lives.

  Honour

  Not Honor.  Honour.  I have been immersed in samurai culture and the way of Bushido for the past few weeks as I have read Shogun, and watched movies like 47 Ronin and The Last Samurai.  While all are works of fiction, and though feudal Japan is definitely far from the ideal society, the one thing that makes these stories so intriguing is the emphasis on honour.  Keeping your word, loyalty to family and friends, sticking up for the weak, treating others with respect; these are all honourable things we can do for ourselves and for others.  A true warrior would make sure that his word was his bond.  He would fight for what he thought was right, and would be willing to admit when he was wrong.  Most importantly, I think the ideal warrior would keep the promises he makes to himself.

  Physical Strength

  A warrior is a force to be reckoned with.  He is an athlete, with strength to spare so that he can pick up the slack where others fall short--not just when it comes to heavy lifting, but when it comes to long days at the office, late nights with the offspring, or even more important, carrying a sick wife from the couch to the bed.  He is a fighter who can defend his family from the surrounding wolves, all without breaking a sweat.  He is strong so that others don't have to be.  He is strong so he can lift and build up others.

  Wisdom

  A warrior is wise.  He never foolhardily runs into battle, or rattles off his toung in judgement where none is warranted, or speaks without deciding exactly on the words that come out of his mouth.  He manages his house with patience.  He acts decisively, with little spontaneity.  He is reliable and always seems to have the right answer.  A true warrior knows when to fight and when to stay silent.  He acts with precision.  He acts with purpose, and he wastes very little.  In a world and society that seems to value a life without responsibility or restraint, a warrior understands that these things will bring joy, accomplishment, and peace. 

  Spirituality

  God, the spirit, nature.  Reverence.  A warrior understands that the world is shaped by a power greater than his.  Whatever that power may be, it deserves his respect and honour.  A warrior knows that he has something to gain by pursuing and nourishing the metaphysical.  It provides purpose, resolve, and feeds life to all the other attributes.  It provides him with an inner strength that cannot be obtained with nutrition and exercise.  He knows that spirituality provides him with peace even though the rain beats upon his face.

  Endurance

  The warrior never quits.  He knows that he can do hard things.  He understands that he will have failures riddle his confidence and resolve, but that the only true failure would be to never get back up, to never keep going.  I love the scene in The Last Samurai when Algren (Tom Cruise) is first taken captive by the samurai and while casually walking through the village, he engages in a dual with a child with stick swords.  Though he only plays with the child, a samurai steps in to up the ante.  His skill is obviously lacking, and he is continually pummeled until he falls to the ground.  It is quick and sharp and hard.  It hurts.  But he gets back up and puts his stick at the ready.  He is quickly subdued a second time and this time finds himself on the ground again, his welts inflamed, his face bloodied and the pain excruciating.  He gets up again.  And again.  Until his body simply won't allow him to move.  Though he is less skilled, wounded, and sure to lose, he continues to fight until his body fails him.  But his will is strong and he never quits.  Mind over matter. 

  Endurance is the knot that ties all the attributes nicely together.  Though courage allows us to take the first step, endurance allows us to take the last.  It gets us to where we want to be.  A true warrior never quits.

  I want to be a true warrior.  I don't want to play one in a video game anymore.  I don't want to pretend anymore.  And so I will start with courage.  Courage to finally pursue what I have always wanted to be.  It's a hard road.  One fraught with danger, problems, and conquests.  But all I need to do is take that first step...