A Young Friend

The Autumnal Legends Series : VI

A birth in the spring creates the greatest optimization of opportunities for a new born to survive. That's in the animal world. In the human experience a young man born into life's expectations experiences the promises of possibilities … he could be a rock star, a politician, a race car driver … the list goes on. He pauses to look at each one … and as he does that he is fed a daily possibility from advertising, magazines, TV, internet and the movies.

 

It has to be pointed out that the young person is viewing these possibilities in the media with a certain association of his expectations and ambition. Hence he may ' lend ' his enthusiastic nature to ' living ' such a possibility, even if its only for a while.

 

Depending on the volume of possibilities he is exposed to, it is not unusual for him to find that he has a ' filing cabinet of impressions ' in him that provides a preamble of what the world is. It is likely that he may help it grow into his pre-adult years before his choice of specialization separates him from all the others.

 

Its helpful as a model of what his environment is … and beyond that … he may even come to relate to his impressions as the environment itself or perhaps even the world. The experience is sometimes a source of annoyance to adults who are committing to a greater professional nature and skills development in their vocation. But they come to a startling revelation in their experiences.

 

They discover in stubborn consternation that the world of impressions within, cultivated with boyhood intimacy, is their only source of reference about the world. They reach out to it and attempt to stabilize it by deferring to an older personality as the alter ego. In the meantime, their defenselessness on the issue makes for all kinds of chicanery with the ladies, their friends and if not guarded exposes them to serious risks as pedophile.

 

With some management of the issues … and a clear statement of objectives on all sides … they come to meet a wonderful young man … someone they once were but now removed … who continues to represent life's possibilities, not as career choices any longer but as life forms … both in the past and in the future … with a hint of a relation to fertility and reproduction.

 

Indic legends refer to the phenomenon as Vasudeva and his student Arjuna, Siva and his son Muruga. No doubt the great Hercules related to his nephew Ioalus. They are expected to be one and the same man in physical form but with a talent for poetry. This brings another perspective to the issue … how a young man growing up related to his alter ego … his own adult in the future?

 

Freud's theories didn't broach the possibility that our perceptions may be self related. What we are encountering in our societies as same sex relations are therefore without past guide on issues. Our actions in these times may set the standard for years to come.