The story of Icarus is a popular one in Greek Mythology as
one who did not survive his transition from boyhood to manhood. His father,
Daedalus, made a pair of wings stuck together with wax for him and Icarus and
gave it to him so that they can escape the imprisonment at the castle. Before
flying Daedalus warned Icarus to not fly too close to the sun for the fear of
the wings coming off because the wax would melt due to the heat. Icarus did
exactly what he was asked not to and fell into the ocean to his death. But is
it all that simple?
How far had he really gone before the wings came off and why
did he not realize it before it was too late despite his father’s warning? May
in a parallel world, he did heed his father seriously and flew to the other
side and lived a long and happy life. But this world is filled more with emotional
Icarus than the logical Daedalus. Why did he not act sensibly? Was he stupid
enough to not understand the logic behind it all? He most certainly did. But still
he gave into his passions and suffered the consequences.
A society churning on logic alone, devoid of emotions, can possibly
never have a holistic Hegelian Dialectic growth and as humans, we are bound to
give into passions or else we would be programmable machines for no scope for
anything but logic. We all have been Icarus-es in our lives at one point or the
other. We have all flown too close to the sun and fallen to our situational
deaths. But since we almost always know that the heat is going to kill us, why
do we go so close to the sun? I could only think of one thing. We knew that the
fire would ruin us but it all never happened immediately. We flew for the
passion of seeing the world metaphorically, as Icarus did, but we had the
warning of our Daedalus-es in our head at the early flight. But when passion
took over and the risk seemed doable in comparison to the beauty one was to
experience by flying higher, one decided to do the unthinkable. The wax was
slowly melting and feathers were slowly coming off as one sore higher and
higher and because it was all happening so gradually, one failed to immediately
grasp the extent of damage and the dire consequences it entailed. No one would
do it or would have the opportunity to do it, if the wax melted right away. The
slow melting encouraged Icarus and he took the risk. This is all very fine
because without risk there is no growth. Without passion there is no
achievement. But how far is one to go? That is the eternal question.
I have been guilty of an Icar-ian existence myself and as someone wise enough
pointed out to me that knowing alone will never help because even Icarus “knew”
it. It is the acceptance of it and the subsequent actions that matter.
We all go through the Icar-ian phase where we let a certain
thing drain our wings off the wax and still we fly higher and higher hoping
that it will all fall in place or we would make it to the other side before it
is too late. Sometimes that does not happen and we plunge into the abyss to our
death, to our glorious and morbid and embarrassed Icar-ian death.
The society will always have Icar-ian deaths and very few of us will be wise enough to heed our Daedalus and live into a better life. I did
meet one recently and their ability to see through a situation clearly and
without prejudices gave me a peep into the lives of the people who have had
made potential impacts in the world with their vivacious and certain existence.
I leave it all with an admiration and desire to be the Icarus who heeds
Daedalus than the one who falls to his death.
DAEDALUS WARNING ICARUS TO NOT FLY TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN
