Sisyphus, Prometheus, Snowden and others

There is a class of hero who defies convention and goes off-script. He operates outside of sanctioned channels and defies the power-brokers. If you comb through history you will see this character, an uncomfortable combination of Jung's Hero and Rebel archtypes, popping up at random intervals.

Adam defied God and ate from the tree of knowledge, bringing death and pain into the world. He suffered the pain of having one of his sons murdered by another one of his sons. 

Prometheus stole fire from Apollo and gave it to humans. He was chained to boulders on top of a mountain and his liver was pecked at by vultures only to have it grow back over-night. In ancient Greece, qualities like bravery and fortitude were believed to reside in the liver, much like way we say "have heart".

Sisyphus bartered with the gods for a spring that never ran dry for Corinth. He was sentenced to roll a boulder up a steep mountain only to have it slip from his grasp mere feet from the top and roll all the way back to the bottom.

Jesus defied the scribes and pharisees and the powers appointed by Rome. He promised mankind eternal life, something that was reserved for gods. He was crucified.

Galileo observed the wobbles of objects in the sky and deduced that the earth is not the center of the universe. He shared that conclusion and he was condemned by the Catholic Church for "vehement suspicion of heresy".  

Snowden revealed that nothing is private on the internet. Big-Brother trawls all traffic. Snowden fled to Moscow, Russia.

Batman?  

There are others. Some would include various politicians who defied the puppet-masters who were pulling strings in smoke-filled, back rooms. They campaigned and won in spite of the puppet-masters' dictates. You know who ISN'T one of these archtypes? Bernie Sanders. He rolled over even though he was set to trounce Hillary Clinton for the Democratic POTUS nomination in 2016.

These heroes (or antiheroes, depending on your perspective) are sprinkled through history and the stories about them shape how we perceive and process events. They created the mental structures we use to bring order to our lives.

Have you been to the beach lately?

 A palate cleanser 

If you are like me, the first two things you noticed are the complete lack of visible tattoos and her very practical fingernails.

It is very nice to see a picture of a woman who hasn't turned her skin into a comic-strip or her hands into horror-movie props.

I am sure that she has a very pleasant personality.