I've got to get those books read before they're due back at the library ~ especially the one on Arabian horses. I have loved Arabians since I was a kid. The way they arch their necks and tails. Who wouldn't love that 'dished' and wide eyed face?
OF course, there is that ultimate fantasy Arabian. I guess there are millions out there who fell in love the same way I did, with Walter Farley's the Black Stallion. You know, looking back on those stories (and perhaps this is a result of my reading Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth, I can see an underlying theme. Perhaps even in the years to come, these stories will be a part of our mythos, instead of just a classic kid's book.
Anyway ~ getting back to this theme. Besides of it being a story of a boy and literally his horse (no one but the boy can ride it), what if it could be a parable, something on the order of...oh damn, I can't remember the exact phrase...something about the innocence of a child...ah, well. So much for my big, neato-nifty-wow, mindblowing idea for tonight. (:::snicker:::) So...anyway...
So...the story opens with Alec and his father crossing the ocean. If you think about it, the ocean is one of the archetypal symbols for the emotions ~ deep, dark and scary. Most of us just skim along the top of this 'ocean' of emotions, happy and oblivious in our little life ships...until it goes down in flames...but we'll get to that.
So Alec goes wandering and sees all these Arab guys trying to subdue this big, black horse. The men call the horse 'Shaitan' (Satan) and fear it. They've got all kinds of ropes on it, as well as a blindfold, and still the horse is uncontrollable. It is screaming and kicking and fighting. Sounds kind of like life, huh? All these 'guys' trying to control every aspect of the wild thing that is life. They try to tie it down and put the blinders on, so that they only see what is right in front of them. I admit it ~ I'm even guilty of it sometimes (don't ask about the blinders...I'm notorious for my single track mind sometimes. Get out of the gutter.) Yet, there it is ~ the wildness; the vitality, the unknown. When they can't control it, they may wonder what evil has befallen them.
Then the ship sinks.
So here we are, immersed in the sea of emotion with nothing but 'water' as far as the eye can see...which may not be very far if it's dark. Darkness is one of those things that seems like a paradox. It is from whence all things come: the womb, space before the big bang...yet it is feared. In the story, all the men are grabbing anything they can that is from the ship: wood, barrels, you name it. They are grabbing whatever pieces of their life 'ship' they can so that they don't sink into the dark depths of 'the ocean.'
The boy on the other hand, instead of clinging to the remains of the ship, grabs one of the ropes from the horse. He doesn't know where the horse is going or even if he's going to make it out of all of this but he figures that anywhere else is better than his current position and promptly passes out. Yep ~ life can be like that too. Your ship goes down in flames; you grab a rope and next thing you know you're waking up, washed up on an 'island shore,' a little worse for wear but alive.
The horse, meanwhile needs saving too. The ropes which couldn't totally hold it on the ship finally do their job by getting tangled in some boulders. The wild horse is down on the ground. The boy cuts the ropes to free the horse and then goes on to earn its trust, by getting to know it on its own terms instead of the other way around. In other words, he comes literally to the horse with the 'eyes of a child.' It isn't a big, fearful satanic monster that could kill him as well as look at him but a horse. A wild horse but a horse, nevertheless.
Page Copyright 2002 D. Firewolf
