THE SWORD

It began in the school playground.

That was where he first found his will power.

The boy had never had to wield his sword before…

But he was forced to.

As he took a kick to the gut, whilst he lay helpless in the dirt, he felt his will power rising; that is what THE SWORD is. For a boy, the will is weak and untapped, his sword is blunt and wooden, waiting to be upgraded to the sharpness and danger of steel when he comes of age…

But that takes initiation.

That requires the teaching of grown men; mentors and fathers who have travelled the bumpy road of life with their wooden swords before. Men must teach the stories of how they overcame their pain, their wounds, their adversity to prepare a boy to wield his own will power, his own sword, but some lessons cannot be taught. Some lessons smack you in the face without warning like the fist that had just sent the boy to the dirt.

The boy had done nothing wrong. He had simply been part of the team that won the game of football they were playing in the playground that day. He was celebrating his victory with his friends after throwing the winning touchdown…

Until he was smacked down to the dirt.

A bully on the other team had taken a disliking to the celebration. He kicked the boy as he lay in the mud, dazed from the punch that sent him there, until the boy realised something. As the hormone adrenaline coursed through his BODY, he realised that he had the will to overcome this. The kicks were damaging but with the adrenaline flowing strong, they weren’t hurting like the boy thought they would. The wounds could be tended to later, because for now, it was time for will power.

The boy felt it. For the first time in his young life he felt the will to survive pulsating from deep within. He felt a spirit beyond his mortal flesh preparing to remove his wooden sword from its scabbard. There was a voice inside, a voice we all have that belongs to the higher self we cannot see, and it was telling him to place his right hand, his strong hand, his dominant hand on the handle of the wooden sword that was his untapped will power. The kicks were coming in hot, they were not going to stop…

So it was time to tool up!

The boy clenched his fist. He felt the invisible force of his indomitable will ready to strike for the first time in his young life, a young life that had been moulded and shaped by a loving mother, a loving father, but now, he was on his own. This was an initiation from life itself. It was a rite of passage. At some point, a boy has to fight back for the first time in some capacity, mummy and daddy cannot save him, and this was that moment. It was kill or be killed, will or be willed, so the boy did what had to be done.

He swung with all his might!

* * *

The man would never forget that first fight.

He remembered the bully’s shock as his right hook connected with his left cheek.

He was just a boy back then so his will was weak and wooden, but the punch did enough damage to challenge the bully; he stopped kicking immediately and ran to the headmaster’s office. It was the first time the bully had felt another boy’s will power and the shock had exposed the coward that he was. He proceeded to snitch on the fight that he had started…

But couldn’t finish.

The man would never forget what his headmaster said as he sat in the chair opposite him as a boy:

“The choice is yours. Now that you have felt the power of your will…

What will you do with it?

Will you become another bully as your sword is tempered from wood to steel by life’s lessons…

Or will you forge it into a force for good?

The intention behind each swing of your sword is up to you.”

The man needed those words more than his headmaster knew. As a boy, he had been given his first taste of will power – what his actions could do to another – and without that guidance, he might just have become another bully as he grew into a man. The world already has enough of those, there are enough evil men that lack empathy, so he was grateful for his headmaster’s mentorship as the life of a good man had treated him well; he didn’t suffer in the shadow of evil because he had chosen to swing his sword for the side of good. 

What did that look like?

Over time, in the wake of each choice that he made he recognised the consequence of his actions on the other. As a boy becomes a man, he either likes the power he wields over others – or – he likes the power he wields for others. For a man to wield the steel of a strong sword he must choose either or, because to not choose at all is to succumb to the will of others. It is to live the life of a sheep, scared of wolves or led by shepherds; a man can only develop independence through the choice to wield power over – or – for the other.

The man had chosen to wield his sword for others, and in doing so, his sword was no longer wooden. The metal of his will had been strengthened in the trial by fire of life’s choices, and now, his power was as influential as his sword was steel. People followed him, he was his own shepherd, which came with responsibility; he would need to wield his will power carefully so as not to guide his flock from the path.

That is the last lesson for THE SWORD.

* * *

He was an old man now.

He had wielded his will power for a lifetime.

He had guided and mentored young men for many years…

And he was tired.

His steel sword had rusted; it was dull, misshapen and worn down. He didn’t have the strength to remove it from his scabbard ever again, yet he was satisfied with the work he had done; a man will find great satisfaction in work that shares his will. As a boy he had been given a lesson from such a man, his headmaster who mentored him in his moment of need, and he had carried that lesson through life by way of the will of his BODY; most men have no idea how far their words can travel. The old man knew, so he told every young man he shepherded the same thing his headmaster said:

“The choice is yours. Now that you have felt the power of your will…

What will you do with it?

Will you become another bully as your sword is tempered from wood to steel by life’s lessons…

Or will you forge it into a force for good?

The intention behind each swing of your sword is up to you.

What will you do with THE SWORD?”

Tane