Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
~ Helen Keller

Greek Mythology has given way to many idioms. Warned by his father, Daedalus, Icarus was instructed not to fly too close to the sun, which would cause the beeswax in his wings to melt. Icarus ignored his father’s warning, fell from the sky, plunged into the sea, and drowned. The myth gave rise to the expression, “Don’t fly too close to the sun,” which references Icarus’ recklessness and defiance of limitations.

My parents were far from helicopter parents; they were quite the opposite. They taught my brother and me the everyday things: not talking to strangers, doing things in pairs, and having each other’s backs. They also gave us “in case of” images to file away in our brains.

When swimming in the ocean and getting caught in a wave’s tumults, don’t panic. Head for the bottom; it will take you out of the turmoil and give you the propulsion to pop up to the surface. If a large dog attacks you, put your fist down their throat; it cannot bite down.

We memorized our grandparents’ telephone numbers and addresses in case of emergency. We knew the mechanics of driving many years before we needed to. Hopefully, we would not need any of the information, but as life has it, I have used much of it.

What was not a part of our early years was anything that prevented us from falling down.

When my brother and I were 9 and 8, we lived one year in Europe. We were given pocket change for the day and the freedom to take a bus and explore.  Going to the movies and seeing Mary Poppins in London was a highlight, and being traumatized by the tools of torture at the Wax Museum was memorable. Nevertheless, it created within two young souls the ability to make decisions and solve problems that arose.

In High School, I was chosen to be in an independent study program that took 40 students with various GPAs. The concept was to use the community as the classroom. The structure we had known was removed and replaced with endless possibilities to learn what interested us, with the caveat that we needed to fulfill the subjects we needed to graduate. It was right up my alley, doing two years of studies in one year and graduating a year early. My childhood independence prepared me to excel in an area where self-motivation was imperative to success. However, it was discovered that many lacked the focus or incentive to accomplish tasks without a taskmaster. In the following years, they revised how they operated the program.

Early exposure to thinking outside the box has led to who I am. As an adult, I understand that not all kids were raised with the liberty my brother and I had. Nowadays, my parents would have been reported to child services for some of the opportunities we were given. Yet, since my brother and I knew nothing else, we thrived with the latitude.

The story of Icarus and Daedalus is known as a tragedy. A son disregards his father’s warning, resulting in a father losing his son, yet I believe it teaches a noteworthy lesson. Aiming for the sun is an admirable goal, but to do so with ego and without assessing risks and parameters is folly.

The value I learned from the ability to reason, make decisions, and live with the consequences of my choices is not to fly too close to the sun for fear of failure but rather to adapt, revise, and remake better wings to do so.

Lack of experience limits our imagination, which governs our view of the world. To create the life we imagine, we must expand our horizons, spread our wings, and stretch toward what attracts us.

Moving forward requires letting go of the fear of not taking risks and instead trusting in one’s ability to endure the perils of one’s choices. Perhaps it is riskier not to risk at all, guaranteeing that all will remain as it is and you live your life never experiencing the unknown. Nothing extraordinary happens when we don’t strive for the unforgettable.  Risk nothing, and nothing changes; the choice is yours.

The struggles we endure today will be the ‘good old days’ we laugh about tomorrow.
― Aaron Lauritsen