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The Odyssey


Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off  course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy. 
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.

The man of twists and turns - The polytropos one, as Homer supposedly refers to him. Fondly, I am sure because Odysseus seems to be a beloved hero. Polytropos - a word that hints at a man meandering, both, in his travels as well as in his mind. And it is this meandering of the mind that caught my attention (as it always seems to do). A restless mind that thinks of the most ingenious schemes to attack/escape from an enemy and the most fascinating tales to mask real identities. A mind that is torn between the need to indulge in new experiences and the urge to return home.

I find nothing more endearing than the conflicted mind. It shows a propensity for rumination. A mind that refuses to see situations and people as black or white, but as points in a spectrum of varying shades of gray. Conflicted minds are usually questioning, rebellious. I relate to a mind like that because mine is similar.

I couldn't have found a better time to read The Odyssey. It is a tale that can be interpreted in various ways.

As I make hard decisions in my own life, what I choose to take away from Odysseus and his quest is his unwavering sense of duty towards his wife, his son, his people, his country. A sense of duty that keeps him from enjoying a divine paradise with the nymph Calypso. He pines for a home he hasn't seen in more than 10 years, a wife he knew for about a year before leaving for Troy, and an infant son he barely held in his arms. What was it that made him want to go back, I've wondered. What was it that made him sit on the shores in Calypso's paradise and cry every day for 7 long years? His sense of duty, I guess. What else could it be?

Maybe when I ponder over this book at a different time, I will look at this differently. I might have a different interpretation for what took Odysseus back home. I might even find a different aspect of the book to ruminate about. But for now, this is what I choose to focus on and how I choose to look at it. And I do so, because it gives a perspective to issues I have at hand.

As much as I crave a very elusive freedom, I realize now that I am also bound by chains - chains that I have willingly adhered myself to. Sometimes, the need to escape from these self imposed chains overwhelms me. But I realize that I have a responsibility as well. While my immediate reaction, when faced with any adversity, is to abandon ship and escape, I have to stop and ponder over the consequences of my actions. Some adversities are just dark storms that I have to get past. Stay and fight.

I have no clue/no understanding of what my Ithaca looks like and I'm not sure I ever will but I am hopeful that I'll get there eventually.
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