Foundational Lessons From Fictional Characters: Crafting Your Reality
I’m a firm believer in the phenomenon of the right things coming into your life at the right time. You may hear very applicable advice to your situation but if you’re not in the right headspace it’s going to be worthless. The amount of times that I have received damn near perfect council at opportune times and squandered it because I wanted to make the mistake myself is embarrassing. Having to touch the stove to find out if it’s actually hot has been a consistent trope in my life. Hearing about an experience from another perspective has its value but it doesn’t hit the same as doing it firsthand. Being told that there is a great expansive world out there is much different than going and getting your hands dirty in the universal sandbox.
These are the stories that represented this best to me.
One Piece
Eichiro Oda is our modern-day Homer, Tolkien, and has surpassed George Lucas, J.K. Rowling, and Marvel/DC.
In my humble opinion.
It is genuinely hard to contain this massive piece of fiction into one short blog post and one lesson. One Piece has had a profound effect on my foundational beliefs. It starts off following a boy named Monkey D. Luffy with a simple goal, become King of the Pirates. Now it’s a simple goal but we quickly find out it is one of the most difficult things we get to witness. The emotional hills and troughs that the reader goes through with this goofy, big-hearted dude are not something for the faint of heart. We get a brief look at who inspired Luffy to have this dream. Shanks is a scruffy pirate captain who takes a liking to Luffy, the local orphan seeking adventure. Luffy wants to join Shanks’ crew but Shanks wisely denies him. A sequence of events then occurs that involves Luffy eating a Devil Fruit that gives him rubber man powers and takes his ability to swim, a bandit disrespecting Shanks, that same bandit kidnapping Luffy, and finally, Shanks showing that he’s actually not so scruffy and saves Luffy. Shanks then sets up Luffy’s adventure by entrusting his straw hat to him and challenging Luffy to give it back to him when he has gathered a crew that is stronger than his own.
Throughout this modern-day Odyssey, we witness Luffy flex his emotional intelligence as often as his fighting prowess. In each place he stops, he gains an ally, friend, and opportunity for an experience that brings him closer to his goals. What we initially thought was a seafaring adventure to watch a boy become a man as he conquers the waters, slowly unveils itself to be a deep emotional toil. There are hidden mysteries within this world that we get a very slow drip of information, which is equally frustrating and fulfilling. I want the answers and I want them now but this story ending is the last thing I want. One Piece tackles the macro as well as the micro. Meaning, that the overarching themes are conveyed extremely well but they take a backseat as the first-hand narrative is our vehicle through them. The overarching themes are that of living freely, caring for your fellow citizens, collapsing corruption, and achieving your goals by living your dream.
I will have a full fanfare post strictly about One Piece and how it impacted my life but that’s future me’s task.
Lesson learned: No matter your circumstances, you are capable of making your dreams a reality.
Dune
“Life is a reality to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.” This quote here hit me like a freight train in my tiny studio apartment senior year of college. My senior year of college started in the infamous year 2020. As I am scrambling like an omelet trying to map out my adult life, the world is coming out of the haze of global quarantine. The girl I was seeing at the time, to her credit, gave me a gift during a time of turbulence. She reignited my love for reading and diving into new stories. I’m painfully aware I’m not special in saying that 2020 was a time of turmoil and turnover. However, this was a pivotal moment in time for me as I felt that I had finally taken off a veil over my eyes. Frank Herbert was instrumental in this. I love the way he lays out a vast world with intricate relationships but he holds your hand just enough to gather your feet before the story takes off into the deepest parts of weird and mind bend.
Paul Atreides is the son of a noble house that is about to assume control of the most hostile yet most valuable planet for trade, Arrakis. This planet produces the most valuable substance in the galaxy, Spice. This substance allows for interstellar travel through the level of clairvoyance it provides to the Navigators. On Arrakis, it is a sacred psychedelic drug. The Fremen, inhabitants of Arrakis, are anticipating the coming of their religious prophet who ultimately ends up being Paul Atriedes. Known among the Fremen as Muad’Dib. Herbert’s take on destiny/fate is what is very interesting about this story. Paul Atreides’ mother is of the Bene Gesserit. She is ordered to strictly only birth daughters because if a Bene Gesserit births a son they are believed to become the Kwisats Hadarach, a superhuman mind as the result of centuries of a breeding program. The twist of fate in this story that delightfully puzzles me to this day is how his two destinies intertwine and simultaneously fulfill him and terrify him. He is destined to become the leader of the Fremen and achieve a level of consciousness never before seen. However, he also releases the most devastating force upon the galaxy and ultimately wipes out billions of lives. Paul fights this tooth and nail but he comes to terms that this is what has to pass.
I’m not of the camp that destiny/fate is the only outcome. Meaning, I believe there is a semblance of a predetermined path for everyone but it branches into near-infinite possibilities. Herbert is one of the founding fathers of Sci-Fi and many many stories are built off his giant shoulders. Rightfully so, the craft and care put into this expansive universe and the lore of defeating our A.I. counterparts to take off to the stars is beautifully played off of in the background. Dune is a wonderful story about accepting your destiny but paving your own path within it.
Lesson learned: You may have predetermined paths for your life, but it’s up to you to craft the reality you want to live.
We don’t play god in our lives, but I do believe we were given material from the source to craft the life we want to live. These two stories were very well-timed in my life to realize that I don’t have to walk down the same ol’ beaten path. Instead, the endless possibilities the universe offers are ours to explore.
