Middle of the Story

“Sing in me, Muse,
and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end.”

So says Homer, the blind poet attributed with transcribing the 8th century B.C. journey of Odysseus. Much of the original work survives and has been translated and debated by scholars of Western Literature. However, the authorship and historical legitimacy of the geography and events encountered by the hero in the years following the Trojan War are not so very important to me.
I appreciate best the following pared-down summary of all twenty-four books (or chapters): “It’s a story about a guy who is trying to get home.”

Odysseus confronts storms at sea, cannibals, monsters, typhoons, enchantments and interfering deities in his attempt to return to his wife and son. He is a flawed hero, often momentarily distracted by beguiling options. But fundamentally, he is steadfast in his determination.

He is admirable, and I like to imagine what his story inspired in the listeners from the days when news was conveyed by barefoot runners and history was recounted by nomadic bards. Did his strength or persistence or favor from the gods cause their hearts to be stirred by the telling and re-telling? Were they captivated by his daring? Odysseus’ return to Ithaca is accomplished just past the halfway point, but it takes the remaining eleven books to deal with one hundred suitors that had encamped on his grounds and the final battle he was compelled to wage to win hearth and home.
Is that where the appeal was for Homer's contemporaries?

That is where it is for me. This world has many distractions, dangers, delights and deities. Some years are filled with battle, while others contain months on an enchanted island.

Like Odysseus, I aspire to be "skilled in all ways of contending" -- for righteousness, truthfulness, mercy and love. Despite my flawed and sin-marred self, I want to be an excellent wife, a wise mother, a fair employer, a faithful friend. Hopefully my epic will be filled with redemption, bravery, beauty and forgiveness.

But above all else I want the summary of my life to be, “It’s a story about a girl who is trying to get home.”

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”          C.S. Lewis