The Pride of Man

Rating: 6/10 (24 August 2015)

As a whole people have a difficult time accepting help whether it be from friend or foe. Generally speaking, a person carries emotional baggage with them that affects their decisions for good and for bad. A large part of this baggage is passed down to us by our parents and those who influenced our lives early on. Sometimes this results in the acceptance of help and other times it compels us to refuse help out of pride, shame or any number of secondary emotions.
These thoughts coalesced during a secondary viewing of remake of the film, "Clash of the Titans". While the movie did fail on many levels, what it did get right was the above message. Perseus throughout the entire story, refused his father, Zeus' assistance. In his mind he needed to prove and to know and that he wasn't like the other gods and that a human could accomplish great deeds. Only once, he was able to cut off Medusa's head without godly assistance was he able to accept that he could allow Zeus' offerings; a Pegasus and a sword.
This is not something that is exclusive to a narrative. Everyday we make decisions that have the potential to be based on qualities passed onto us that he feel shame or pride in. Often, these decisions limit our potential and what we are able to accomplish in our lifetime. On the extreme end of that, those who cannot cope with their baggage may even descend into a lesser life lived. There is no one path for a person to take in order to work through this baggage and achieve happiness. It is accomplished through trial and error. One person may have to reconcile their feeling about a perceived inadequate parent while another person has to cut a monster's head off. It's all a matter of interpretation.