{"id":6429,"date":"2023-12-13T11:44:50","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T18:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/?p=6429"},"modified":"2023-12-13T11:44:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T18:44:53","slug":"hero-pose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/2023\/12\/hero-pose\/","title":{"rendered":"hero pose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWe cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.\u201d 
\u2015 Tom Stoppard,<\/strong> <\/strong>Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video games have given us the archetype of the non-playing character. I\u2019m the hero of the game, and I can take action, have adventures and consequences for what I do. The Non playing characters (NPCs) are in the game doing one thing, with no variation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like, a troll, or a princess that must be rescued. They only have one job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I move forward in my upcoming radiation therapy, every day I am lying on a table and being hit with X-Rays\u2014Don\u2019t move! Don\u2019t breathe too hard!\u2014I am an NPC.  It\u2019s their world I am in, an object to be pushed into the shape of their choosing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video games\u2019 portrayal of the NPC is not new. It\u2019s instantly recognizable. They surround me. Clerks in stores, other pedestrians as I\u2019m walking the streets\u2014so many people I do not interact with but who share a space with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I want to be the hero. If I\u2019m not the active player, who is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That play I\u2019m quoting at the beginning– Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead<\/strong><\/a> \u2013is a play about two NPCs in Hamlet. They show up say a few lines and die in Shakespeare\u2019s version. Tom Stoppard gave them their own play. Everyone is the hero of their own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thoreau wrote
\u201cThe mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation… From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to be a rodent. I\u2019d rather be up and fighting the dragon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a lot of background work that goes into fighting a dragon. Even the heroic knights in armor had to stand very still while their squires strapped them into the armor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heroism take a lot of forms. I am learning that to be the hero I want to be  I have to stay still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.\u201d \u2015 Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6430,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429\/revisions\/6430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}