Kurai Extravaganza

Human snakes

Snakes and people; there is a reason why in the books about Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling one of Hogwards school for magic is named Slytherin and has the snake as an emblem.

As I have said before, there is a lesson to be found in everything, even in the figure of Severus Snape, whom may have had everything of a snake in him, but also has the heart of a lion. The houses of Hogwards remind us that all four sides are gathered inside us.

 

In the movie 'Alexander' about the fascinating Alexander the Great, his mother, Queen Olympia, tells him that one must never show fear, never must hesitate, otherwise the snake will strike. It is quite obvious that people work exactly the same way. We resemble snakes much more than we often like to believe.

 

The Queen then compares Alexander?s friends to snakes. He goes too easy on them, shows hesitation while they are around, and she arns him that it are exactly his dear friends (with the exception of his beloved Hephastios) whom impose the greatest danger for him.

 

Even though Alexander did not listen to her, I have to agree. In important matters, it are often not those whom oppose you that hold you back. At crossroads, at the moment one stands before making an important decision (such as the Gregorian Knot, to stay in the Alexandric atmosphere), it are often one?s friends whom influence one and drive one into making exactly that choice which is not the right one (as far as can be spoken of that) for you at that moment. One?s friends say what one wants to hear, those whom have the courage to oppose one, reason against it which enables to look at the problem from more sides and then make the best possible decision. To speak with the words of the great (though not in size ^x^) French emperor Napoleon: "Those whom are the greatest threat are not those whom openly oppose you, but those whome disagree and claim to agree because they do not have the courage to say that they do not."

 

However, we trust our friends' judgements in the same way we trust them with our worries and secrets. How often it turns out that the trust which we put in them was a misjudgement from our side! How often are we proved wrong!

 

The fact that someone is dear to you does not mean that what they do and say is right for you. Foremost it is what they consider to be in their own advantages. We can not tkae anything for granted. Not any well-meant words of encouragement, and certainly not our friends!