The Future Has A Price, It Must Be Made
The Future is not taken, it is fashioned by hand. It is protected, nurtured, and guided. We credit old gods but it was always us. Our stories of the past, even our myths, are a message to the future.
Prometheus, last of the Titans — grandson of the Heavens and the Earth.
He created Mankind. At first he used gold but then fused clay into flesh. He tricked the Gods out of the best of sacrificial feasts, so that man could eat.
Seeing that mankind had no protection from the elements, he gave them the secret of fire. Although his name means “Thinks Before”, he was not prepared for the consequences. There is a price for changing the world.
The Gods unleashed Pandora to bring misfortune on man. They chained Prometheus to a rock. His liver would pecked out by a bird. Each time his liver grew back, the bird returned — for eons.
But one day, one of humanity’s greatest sons, Hercules, would free Prometheus. This is how the future unfolds, when the present frees us from the past.
Hephaestus, was a god of fire and fabrication — god of the Makers.
Disowned for being born lame and ugly, he became the most well-liked by the Gods. He made the tools, toys, and weapons of the Pantheon. Once, he made inescapable traps for his mother, Hera, who disowned him, and his wife, Aphrodite, who he caught in bed with Ares. But he released them.
For someone who could build anything, his broken heart was beyond repair. His workshop was his home. The royal courts of the gods were avoided.
Father of the machine, he built wonders such as golden mechanical assistants. Even his trinkets were miracles, including Hermes’ sandals, Aphrodite’s girdle, and Achilles’ armor.
Some had the power of predicting the future, his was to build it.
It is not enough to capture the future out of the clutches of the past, or build it, it must be nurtured too.
Odysseus, mighty King of Ithaca, was condemned by oath to a long war.
Before sailing to land his ships upon the windy plains of Troy, the king went to a trusted friend to watch over his son, Telemachus. Mentor would protect, teach, and guide the heir to the future.
Mentor was made of many people, including Athena in disguise, Goddess of Science, Strategy and the Sword. A wise man + warrior was the ultimate protector and surrogate parent for the boy.
The power to protect the future comes with the will and wisdom to guide it.
Zhongli Quan, one of the Eight Immortals, was a soldier who rose to become a general of the Emperor’s armies — he had a greater destiny.
Zhongli toyed with the forces of the universe through alchemy and became immortal. He had the power of resurrection with the wave of a mystical fan, transmuted base metal and rock into gold and silver. His greatest act, however, was the enlightenment of Lu Dongbin.
Lu thought himself destined for greatness as an Imperial Minister but Zhongli put Lu in a trance. Lu dreamed an entire life, a great rise but then a fall into exile, poverty and the murder of his children. Lu had dreamed of a long tragic life in just moments. He changed paths to become an Immortal.
Zhongli Quan was an Immortal with the power to create: life from death, wealth from nothing and an alternate reality of decades in seconds.
He had the power to create even greater Immortals.
Daedalus, genius and inventor, used his mind to discover flight to escape prison. Icarus, his son, was led by his emotions, his hubris drove him to reach for the stars before he was ready. The son fell to back into Earth’s harsh embrace.
One day, Humanity strained past gravity and learned how to fall and fly.
When we’re falling forward, just ahead of doom, we’re floating in orbit.
The children of Daedalus are flying faster and farther with each moment.
But we know the price of minds being led and not informed by our hearts.
We have it within us to remember who we were, become more, and create a future of our choosing. Some dreams lead to an immortality of the future.
