Icarus

Sail on, sail on
I will rise each day to meet the dawn
So high, so high
I've climbed the mountains of the sky
Without my wings you know I'd surely die
I found my freedom flyin' high
I've climbed the mountains of the sky

--Kerry Livgren

That is part of the lyric from the song “Icarus, Borne on Wings of Steel.” It was recorded by the band Kansas back in the mid-1970’s. It is also one of those songs where a portion of the lyric has been stuck for many years.

What I find most interesting, though, is that the idea for the song was borrowed from the myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun and having his wings of wax melt. Daedalus, his father, warned him not to either fly too close to the sun or to the sea. I guess Icarus forgot, or he wasn’t listening to the advice he was given in the first place.

If you think about it, most people who get into trouble of one sort or another are much like Icarus. Either they forgot what  they’d learned about whatever it is that caused their problems, or they didn’t listen and brought it on themselves.

I encounter that now and again in my line of work, mostly with the impaired and sometimes with people involved in physical altercations or car crashes or some other problem. In either case, usually the end result – sickness, injury, or some sort of insult – is indirectly caused because either they weren’t being smart or prudent about their surroundings or situation, or they simply choose to go against their own better judgment.

I don’t even know why I’m writing about this. I heard the song that has the lyrics portion in the beginning of this post and it simply got my thinking about why bad things sometimes happen to people. It isn’t always that people bring their own misery on themselves, but it happens often enough. And it really can be stopped; those who are in that place just have to want it to stop.

Regular blogging will return in the next post.