knight tarot

 

By Andrew McNally

 

I find it strange that a man has to be a knight in shining armor, or that he has to have so much money before he will be “had” by a woman—or a damsel—who by being physically attractive is all that is needed.

Understandably there are discrepancies between the genders, but I find it odd that Sir Knight is the only one of the two whose worth is based outside of himself. The maiden is inherently beautiful, it’s something she is. The man however is weighed, measured and if he has not completed enough deeds, or they has not been worthy enough, he himself is found unworthy of love, unworthy of the title of knight.

As a student and someone who works in the social services field, I am often faced with trying to understand others, and to a greater extent figure out what is not working. There has been a lot said for why the world is the way it is, and even why America is the way it is. We have an overly masculinized culture that has begun to love war, and will fight at the drop of a hat. We are a country that doesn’t even need an actual threat anymore to go and “defend” itself from  another.

Women today are joining the military, they are told that to win the war of the sexes and be as good as men they have to be equal in every way. They have to work as much, play as hard, drink as much and do everything a man can, and still we watch as our world deteriorates due to global warming, shortages of resources, water drying up some in areas, and an overabundance of it in others. Wars are waged in every country, and still we believe that we are not “man enough.”  

The fundamental flaw in our thinking as a people is that we have no value, and that it must be earned.

If only I had a bigger pay check. If only my house were larger. If only my car were newer. We need more because we do not see ourselves as “enough” yet. And here we are on the brink of heating our planet to global levels of extinction and we still need to do more or take another trip to prove, “I am interesting. I am strong, I am brave, I am worthy.”  Understandably we all must prove ourselves at times (even prove ourselves to ourselves), but at what cost are we proving our superiority.  

A majority of people in this country can travel and see parts of the world that their grandparents could only read about. They can buy more, spend more and do “more” of just about everything others couldn’t do only a few generations ago. We are a powerful people and a powerful nation, but do we have to prove it each and every time we do something?

Does it have to be the biggest and the best to matter? Or is it enough that we have lived and survived another day?

There are thousands if not millions of people in this world who never leave their home cities, or their home villages. There are peoples who still live off the land, and people who live in multigenerational homes.  There are those who cannot walk, who cannot see, and yet here we are still trying to “prove our worth” to the detriment of the whole planet.  

Does the mark of a great man lie only in his noble deeds? Or can we begin to see a man or a woman for their inherent value? What would the world be like then? If instead of getting up each morning to prove our worth, we rose because we were doing what we are meant to do—something that resonates from our core.

If so, what kind of world would be created then?

Andrew McNallyAndrew McNally is currently striving to attain a master’s degree in counseling from a University in Maine. He enjoys hiking, biking, and swimming, as well as working on wood crafting projects in his spare time. With a belief that the divine lies in each and every human, as well as anything else that exists in the universe, Andrew strives to connect to Life and its divinity in anyway possible including, meditation, walks in the woods and taking trips in his colorful and vivid imagination.

 

 

Photo: (tumblr)

Editor: Dana Gornall

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