The Ordinary World
“What do you mean we each need to be our own hero?” I asked.
“Since mankind started communicating with one another,” Iman began, “you have marveled at those who performed above average feats and heralded their exploits through stories. You create myths about these characters as if they were actually super human, from historical figures that instigated great social change…”
“Like Martin Luther King or Gandhi,” Yewell added.
“…to military leaders…”
“Like Alexander the Great and George Patton…”
“…to normal everyday people who seem to go above and beyond the call of duty.”
“…like firemen and ER doctors.”
“Yet each of these people,” Iman continued,” were merely human, complete with all of the frailties and weaknesses that each of you possess. Yet they each overcame their weaknesses and their obstacles to stand out from the average person to do extraordinary things with their lives.”
“When we say that you can be your own heroes,” Yewell said, “we mean that each of you has the capacity to do the same thing.”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “We can’t all achieve greatness. I mean guys like Dr. King are one in a million. Trying to follow in those footsteps… that’s a pretty tall order.”
“Only because you have become so fascinated with remembering their stories as such tall tales,” Iman said. “Granted, the people you esteem as heroes were able to find their way to greatness, but each of you has the possibility to achieve it in your own life as well. However, you have built up the idea of greatness to such an iconic degree that you consider it impossible to attain.”
“For many of us, it is,” I said.
“And as long as you believe that, it will continue to be so. But each of the people you now praise as heroes had to deal with the same doubts about their own potential to achieve their goals, from real people like Dr. King to fictional characters like Luke Skywalker.”
“Nice guy, by the way,” said Yewell. “A little on the serious side though.”
“So how do we go about it?” I asked.
“By starting where you are,” Iman said.
In an instant, we were once again in the center of Five Points Park. I looked around and my eyes landed on the park bench where the aliens had given me the Estralarian Mind Meld. As life seemed to go on around me as people attended to their daily lives, there I was, frozen in time with an alien on either side of me.
“What are we doing back here?” I asked.
“This is the Ordinary World for you, isn’t it?” said Yewell. “Sarasota, Florida?”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“This is where the Hero’s Journey always begins, in the Ordinary World you inhabit every day.”
“What’s so special about this place?”
“Nothing really,” said Iman. “That’s the point. There is nothing special about the Ordinary World for any of you, but it is where each of you begins to realize the life that is waiting for you.”
“Nevertheless,” Yewell added, “there is a reason we chose Five Points Park to deliver your Mind Meld and begin your own particular journey.”
“And what is that?”
“Look around and see if you can figure it out,” he shrugged.
The park itself was shaped like a triangle, but named for the adjacent intersection of three streets connecting from five different directions. To the north was Selby Library. To the west were the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre and the Sarasota Opera House. To the east was the gargantuan Buchanan office building. And in between were a Starbuck’s on one end and Patrick’s and First Watch restaurants on the other.
“I give up,” I said. “What’s the point?”
Iman shook his head and sighed. “What are the five points?”
“Central, Main, and Pineapple,” I said, “but Main and Pineapple each go in different direct…”
“No, you ninny!” Yewell interrupted. “The five points we just went over.”
“Oooooh, those points,” I said. “You mean the CARDS!”
“This was so much easier with Skywalker,” Yewell groaned.
“Wait a minute. I can get this,” I said and looked around. “Okay, so Commitment refers to the mental aspect so that would be the library, right?”
“Right,” Iman said.
“Ambition is the spiritual, the passionate,” I continued, “so that would be the theatres?”
“Very good.”
“Resourcefulness is the physical,” I looked up to the Buchanan building and all of the business offices that filled each floor. “That looks pretty resourceful.”
“And the Dedication?”
I looked back and forth from the restaurants to the coffee house where people gathered and conversed. “That would be the gathering places, the social aspect,” I said. “And I’m in the center of it all so I guess that would be the Solitude.”
“The Solitude,” Iman said, “means that everywhere you go, these aspects of reality that make up who you are – mind, spirit, body, and emotion – are mirrored in the world around you because the world around you is you. You are the Ordinary World.”
