The Humor in Hubris

DISCLAIMER: This post has nothing to do with The Poem; it was just something I thought I could make a topic of while researching literary devices. I was reminded of the first video as a humorous example, and then the post sorta wrote itself from there.

The following short video is a classic example of the literary device, hubris. Can you tell what the meaning of hubris is just by watching the video? I'll give you a hint--it's what brings the bad guys down in the end. And it's hilarious.

In case you thought the guy bouncing around with some smooth moves (just used ambiguity!) was humble, I'll gently correct you. He's displaying over-arrogance, which is commonly used as a method of giving the "bad guy" his just deserts (ambiguity again, and deserts is the original wording, but desserts also is not wrong) at the end of a story.

We see this a lot in movies. Take our beloved Raiders of the Lost Ark. Remember when the guy with the sword put on his showy display of speed and agility, then Indiana Jones rolls his eyes, pulls out his gun, and just shoots the guy? Hubris. By the way, that scene was unscripted. The script actually had Indiana countering with a whip display of his own.

The sword guy displaying his prowess.

He's like, "What?! I'll just shoot him."

Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films is the epitome of hubris, and is portrayed especially cleverly when he asks for "One mill-e-on dollars." Hubris and  hilarious (and dumb, too, but the kind of dumb that makes you laugh). Actually, now that I think about it, Austin Powers is kind of unique, because I'm not sure who is more arrogant, Austin or Dr. Evil. And yet the overly-arrogant Austin Powers still comes out on top.

Just after asking for his million dollars. Does he look arrogant, or hopeful?

Someone else who likes to ask for money. Definitely hubris.

Poor Macbeth was too big for his britches, wrongly thinking he could get away with murder untouched. Hubris.

Oh, Macbeth! Your crown doesn't fit!

And me, too. My over-arrogance made a fool out of me at least once in the past. I was on the junior high basketball team. It was the last minute of the game, and I found myself with the basketball, and literally no one around me. I had a straight path to the hoop, and I broke for it (ambiguity!), thinking the lay up would be insanely easy, and we would at least not be shut out (we weren't very good). Well, maybe my bangs blocked my sight, because I went up for the lay up...and missed. Talk about slamming back down to Earth. Stupid hubris.

Me, acting a little hubris-ly.

The opposite of hubris is what gives Frodo (played by the super blue-eyes Elijah Wood) the edge in The Lord of the Rings. His humility grounds him to the grim reality of his circumstances, and he realizes there is no "I" in "team." As a result, Frodo and his team of unlikely heroes save the world.

Frodo looking resolute yet scared and adorable.

So, just about every movie or book ever made has at least one character displaying hubris, which can lead to either the character's downfall, or his/her realizing that they aren't so great after all. I wonder why?

Literary Devices for You and Me

When I read The Thrill of the Chase and The Poem, I notice some fun literary devices Forrest may have used intentionally...or unintentionally. I didn't think of something to write about in the middle of the night as I often do, so this post is completely off the top of my head. I just used a literary device. Can you tell which one?

So, let's take a look at the poem and decode the literary devices I see. I can't say whether they're intentional or not, because I'm not the architect who created it. It's just what I personally see.

1. The dreaded and much contested "where warm waters..." is a short alliteration. An alliteration is where multiple words with similar sounds are used in one sentence or phrase. In the case of "where warm waters", the repeated sound is the "wh" sound. If you listen to Forrest speak the poem, you can more clearly hear the "wh" in each word, which makes me think it could be intentional. Here's a good alliteration that Marvin Fenn made up: "Fenn's Flies Fool Fish." Say that three times fast.

This picture is courtesy of Forrest Fenn, through Dal's blog, and the story that goes along with it can be found in Scrapbook One Hundred Twenty Seven.

2. "I can keep my secret where..." could be an inversion. It's usually used in classical type poetry, and we rarely see it today. Maybe that's why it has grabbed our attention so effectively. Inversion involves switching the placement of words for a desired effect. You could say "riches new and old" is also an inversion, since our mind rearranges it to mean new and old riches. But there's another literary term that more accurately describes that phrase, and I'll get to that next.

But the "secret where" grabs my attention, as it seems to be purposely placed. When I parse the sentence, it leads to more confusion. I want to say "where" is a noun in the context of the sentence, but I'm told it's something else, which I haven't researched enough yet to be certain. But, in my mind anyway, "where" means "place."

Is this "where?"

3. "...riches new and old," "canyon down", and "water high" are all anastrophes. An anastrophe is when an author places the adjective after the noun, rather than the usual place before the noun. Both "new" and "old" are adjectives because they describe "riches." Adjectives describe nouns. When I say that I ate a cookie with thick pink frosting on it last night, not only is that sentence true, but it places the adjectives (thick and pink), before the noun (frosting).

All that's left of the cookie cake, and the remaining pink frosting will also soon be gone...

"Canyon down" is tricky, though, because in the context of the entire sentence, "down" is not an adjective. In context, both canyon and down are nouns. Which, in my opinion, greatly restricts the meaning.

I'm not sure what Forrest is saying by canyon down, but maybe it has something to do with being "pillowed down."

Here is a pleasing pyramid of plump, plush pillows. Look, I made an alliteration! Alliteration always allows a lot of awesome.

I think I'll stop there. Three is a good number to stop with for the day. I think the theme for Thursday will thoroughly throw three more thumbs to Thor. That makes no sense. What can I say, it's 6:00 am!

Tribute to a Friend

This morning I was reminded about a couple of my friends. 


I became a Christian when I was 16 in high school. My best friend's mom had been taking her to a new church, and the pastor and his family were from England, which I thought was really cool. And my friend said that the youth group was awesome, so she convinced me to go, and I kept on going. I became good friends with the pastor's kids (Malcolm Wild of Calvary Chapel Merritt Island -- he's still the pastor there, and his children still active participants in the church). Joel was my best friend through high school and college.

This is Mary just before she passed, my friend Bev, and Joel, Malcolm's son and one of two best friends in high school.

I made so many important friends there that are still a part of my life and often in my thoughts. This is a picture of a BBQ we had at my house a few years ago. We need to do that more often.

Tracy is standing on my left. Lyndy is on my right. Joel is stooping from his 6'7" self behind me.

This morning I was reminded of a simple song my friend, Tracy Yoho, wrote a long time ago, and was made popular by another friend, Mary Barrett, an extremely talented musician who was taken from life way, way too early from ovarian cancer.

Mary was the kind of person who made you feel important from the first time you met her. She was ALWAYS smiling, even up til the very end. She always had a guitar with her, and her mind was filled with music. She was the kind of person you couldn't help but gravitate to. She was the kind of person who remembered your name from the moment she met you. She was the kind of person who was always positive and encouraging. Her life's mission was to help the hurting, and to express her joy for life through song.

She was a little older than me and my friends, but not much. I remember a retreat we went to one weekend. Two of my friends thought it would be funny if we put peanut butter on everyone's door handles. I went along with it, because it was adventure, and they were my friends, and I was just a foolish 18 or 20 year old.

Well, of course we were found out, and we sorta got in trouble, but we were well loved, and it blew over, but until it did, we found refuge in Mary's room, where she basically told us it wasn't a big deal, and that if it was fun, and not a malicious act, we shouldn't worry or regret it. Peanut butter never hurt anyone not allergic to peanuts. She said the retreat had been a little boring up until that point. She pulled out her guitar and we sang.

She never lost faith and sang and smiled til the end.

Anyway, Mary was awesome. I bet she still is, up there teaching the angels how to harmonize. :) I think this was recorded a few weeks before she died. Today, I hope it encourages some of you, like it has me over the years. I hope you will take the time to listen to this powerful song.

This next tribute features Mary with many, many of my close friends and some pictures of the church I still call home...

Part One: 1930

As I stroll in silence alongside a bubbling stream,

A glimmer of movement flickers off to the side.

I turn swiftly to catch the gauzy azure wings

Disappear at the moment a meadowlark sings.

The chirping stream, the merry meadowlark.

The early sun tingles upon my skin.

A musical, magical place, I just know I'm right...

I sit on the cool soft grass as I pray for new sight.

The meadowlark alights on a twig above the happy brook,

Her song is a hymn of the meadow

Her puffed yellow breast gleams with pride,

And her song finds the  peace I'd lost inside.

A spotted deer drinks just a few yards away

And the stream is content to share it's purity.

As I watch in silent awe and childlike glee,

The deer raises her head and...wow...she winks at me.

Then the grass, a grove of surreal green

As it dries the morning dew,

Comes alive with a sight I'd always hoped to see--

Nine tiny fairies, looking up curiously at me.

They make me want to smile, so I do,

Their radiant laughter is wind chimes in the breeze.

They don't seem amazed that I'm aware they're there,

With their guileless smiles, they draw melody from the air.

They dance, they play, their laughter like Christmas bells

Instill in me a desire to join them, but doesn't yet feel right.

So, I watch, and listen. I'm rapt in their dance.

I know, just know, I'm not here by chance.

The tinkling, chiming fairy songs sound like praise--

To what or whom I don't know.

But when one sweet pixie wing grazes my cheek with a kiss,

I know I'm in church, in this garden of bliss.

With the sun-washed mountains around me,

And the blossomed meadow and clear stream in my midst,

I know this is my sacred place, and my time to shine,

I can leave in contentment, for I now know what is mine.

Maybe not mine alone, because that does no good.

This sacred meadow was meant to be shared.

After all, church is for those desperate for light,

And what better place than here to make wrongs right.

So search for that special purple-woven meadow

With the misty rainbow fairies, majestic deer, and lark.

Open your ears, open your eyes, and open your heart,

For church in holy meadow will bestow a fresh start.

The Truth About Falsehood

Forrest has admitted he is prone to exaggeration. (I'm hoping I'm correct on this and not committing an honest lie). We all are, depending on the time and circumstance.

Some people have insinuated that Forrest has maliciously and purposely lied. The purpose of this post is to assert that  he has not maliciously lied, or even maliciously deceived. He wants us to work for the answer, and that means finding the correct context. The truth is in front of you, but is cleverly hidden in words and context. In my opinion, of course.

So, I did some research on exaggeration and falsehoods in general, and was pretty surprised.

Did you know how many types of falsehoods there are? There's like a million different kinds (exaggeration). 

We all employ some of these falsehoods in everyday life without even knowing it. I'll go over a few with you.

First, let's talk about the honest lie. It sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? But you and I probably commit this kind of falsehood every day when we communicate. Especially when we talk about the chase. There are so many quotes and bits of information to remember that sometimes, without having your five thousand spreadsheets (exaggeration, or maybe not!) laid out before you, you misquote something Forrest has said. I've done it. Even Dal might have done it (I don't know that for sure). I believe those are honest lies. We didn't intend to mislead, and we weren't aware at the time that we spoke false.

Now, let's talk about the famous ball of string. It could be an exaggeration, which is stretching the truth. The fundamental basis of the story is true, but it has been stretched to convey a more powerful meaning. Forrest may have collected the string, but in the retelling of the story, the string grew to such a size in a year so as not to be able to fit out  his bedroom door. Now, for that to be completely true, Forrest either lived in a mouse hole, the three strings a day were several feet long, or the strings were not literal strings. We know Forrest loved to collect things, but did he really create a ball of string so large in one year that it couldn't fit out his bedroom door?  I think that may be an exaggeration, where he exaggerates with the purpose to convey a more powerful and meaningful story. Of course, I'm not Forrest, so this is supposition on my part. 

I'm glad you didn't collect eyeballs, Forrest.

Jedidiah Smith was famous for another kind of falsehood--the jocose lie, or tall tale. These were falsehoods purposely told to provide humor, and it was usually understood by the audience that the story wasn't exactly the truth, despite the teller swearing up and down it was. I can imagine old Jed sitting by the fire saying that while being chased by 420 Injuns on horseback, he jumped into a deep crick, and just before the tomahawk came down on his scalp, a family of giant beavers swam up, grabbed him by his britches and carried him to the safety of their dam, which was set up like a mansion. And then he had cherry pie with the beaver family while the Injuns stomped around on dry ground, scratching their heads in bewilderment.

Jedidiah just before he was separated from his friends, chased by Indians, and ate pie with the Beaver family.

Then, there's the noble lie, which I'm not too familiar with, yet I know it happens. I think the government may think of their lies as "noble," but I'm not sure I buy into that. A noble lie is a lie told maintain calm and order, when if the truth was known, all hell could break loose. A parent thinks they're telling their child a noble lie when they say a shot won't hurt. However, that's not the truth. Shots do hurt, some more than others, depending on the type of shot and the child's pain tolerance. And the result of that noble lie is that the child loses a bit of trust in the parent, which makes them less noble. That's why parents are now encouraged to tell kids the truth, but maybe not the whole truth. "It'll pinch, but will only last a couple seconds." 

If this is a cat, it's doing what cats do best. It might be a rabbit, though.

I wonder what "noble lies" the government feeds us on a daily basis. We know there have been many noble lies exposed in the past (Vietnam, JFK's close call with nuclear war), with the same result on the American public as on those kids who were told shots don't hurt. We've lost trust. 

WHAT?! Marco! Tokyo! Did you REALLY just say that?

Bill Clinton attempted the falsehood known as the "cover up" with Monica Lewinsky. I don't judge Bill for doing what he did. I don't know what his circumstances were, as I wasn't there. Still, it doesn't mask the fact he attempted a cover up. The truth was bound to come out, though. Body language experts know the picture below is a classic sign of a lie--pointing one way and looking another.

I think women who cover themselves with make-up to give the impression of something they're not is a bald-faced (or bare-faced) lie. It seems contradictory, doesn't it, that masking the truth on your face is called "bare-faced." I don't wear much makeup, if any, because I've been told I don't need it, and also because I've always had a strong inclination to be "real." My motto has always been, "What you see is what you get," with me. Well, I will admit I like the blind highlights in my hair.

All natural...waking up with a smile.

However, I could tell you right now that I dated Drew Carey last night, and that is not entirely false, Maybe it's a half-truth, because he was my boyfriend in my dream last night, which totally baffles me. What in the world am I hiding within myself that I would picture myself with the host of The Price is Right? Don't get me wrong, I like Drew Carey. I've heard he's a nice guy, and I admire his determination to get healthy, and I think he's pretty funny. But not who I'd normally picture myself dating. I actually laughed out loud when I woke up. By the way, Drew Carey, if you Google yourself and happen to read this, I would probably love to go on a date with you. But I think we can skip the beach exercise sessions with the audience of your daytime game show (now, isn't THAT an ambiguous statement!).

The last falsehood I'll mention (this may need to be a two-parter) is the contextual lie. That's where someone states the truth out of context, which leads to a false impression, but is not a technical falsehood. It's sort of like we talked about yesterday with ambiguity. I feel the poem may be a contextually ambiguous work. Pretty ingenious! Like "canyon down." If you fail to search out the context, you're led to believe "down" means literally "down." So many of us find that canyon on the map, and take the canyon "down," not realizing that "down" is a noun and may mean something completely different.

Oh, there is so much more! Like the Haystack Answer, the Weasel Word equivocation), the Butler Lie, the Polite Lie, and deflection. I think I will make this a two-parter. 

If only the "needle" were this big!

So, the question is...has Forrest lied to us? NO. He has probably exaggerated, probably been purposely contextually ambiguous, but he has not lied. In my opinion, he's trying to convey a deeper purpose, a deeper meaning to those of us who are willing to work for it.

Stay tuned for some good info...

A Short Explanation of Ambiguity

It appears we have two camps in the chase of Forrest Fenn's treasure. Those in Camp One admit the poem is ambiguous.

This camp has the light on. Those smart campers!

People in Camp Two (the wrong camp, in my opinion) say the poem is "easy" to solve if you read it the "right" way. This may be true, but what is the right way?

So, what is ambiguity? Is it the same as vague? Many people think so, but it isn't. Ambiguous riddles can sometimes be solved using a series of "rules" or "steps," while vague riddles can't lead to a specific "solve."

Which one points in the right direction?

Solving an ambiguous riddle can lead you to go with confidence. Solving a vague riddle requires luck.

So, the poem is ambiguous, in my opinion. Probably intentionally so. Forrest himself says solving it is difficult, but not impossible.

There are all types of ambiguity, which is the reason why there are so many theories that seem to "fit" a solve. Man, I've been there. I've probably been on every bandwagon of theories that bounce around like the bubble gum machine bouncy balls Joe hoards in the glove department of my car.

A sampling of theories for "in the wood":
1. A literal wooded place
2. A petrified tree trunk
3. Behind a tree
4. In an outhouse (since ruled out)
5. In a place named "wood."
6. In a coffin (since ruled out--I think)
7. In the foundation of a ruined building'
8. In a log
9. In something made of wood, like a canoe
10. In relation to a woodwind instrument.

I think "in the wood" means something else, but I'm not divulging it. :)

Why The Poem is ambiguous:

1 There is more than one meaning to many of the words. "Warm" can mean "not quite hot," or that you are close (as in the kid's game), or it can mean a color in the warm spectrum--orange, yellow, red, etc. So warm is an ambiguous word. "Halt" can mean a railroad stop, or a temporary stop, or even a slowing down. Halt is an ambiguous word. Various meanings can be attributed to almost every other word in the poem.

2. The grammar is ambiguous. Why are there mistakes in the grammar?  Why the commas in odd spots? There is a reason, in my opinion, because the writer crafted the poem to be intentionally ambiguous.

How do you solve an ambiguous riddle? I'll tell you a secret. I believe you solve it by context (and so do the people who study such things). Context means finding out exactly what those commas, periods, apostrophes and other punctuation mean. Context is reading the poem in the correct way. Which words are nouns? Which are verbs? Which are prepositions and adverbs? Interpreting words out of context can lead to all kinds of problems. Just ask Bible scholars.

The placing of commas can change the context of a sentence. I've went over this before. If you say "Let's eat Grandma," Grandma is in big trouble. If you say, "Let's eat, Grandma," Grandma is being invited to eat (maybe cookies). Changing the place of commas can change a noun to a verb, or a verb to a noun.

Most people read "the canyon down" as canyon being a noun and down as an adjective. In the context, however, down is actually another noun. So, that rules out many meanings.

But, all this is really supposition, because the poem is ambiguous, and to solve it, you not only have to figure out the meanings to the words in their context, but also the author's rules. Which, apparently, are all in the poem. I haven't found them all yet. I think I've found most of them, but I can't know I'm right until I go with confidence and have the chest in my hands.

Before you play a game, you gotta know the rules.

Eyes are important

Sorry, everyone, I was down for the count the whole holiday weekend with iritis. I went to urgent care after taking my mom to the hair salon. The sunlight felt like razor swords piercing my eye. My whole head throbbed, and even my darkest sunglasses didn't help. On the way home from the salon, I lifted my sunglasses and asked my mom if my eye was red. She looked, then quickly turned away and screamed.

I turned to get a second opinion from Joe. He said, "Eww, Mom, you look like the Walking Dead."

Yeah, it was that bad. I'm not going to post a picture. I showed it to Jamie, who proceeded to zoom in to find the cause. But really, it's too gross for the general population. So tomorrow, exactly one week before my new insurance goes into effect, I need to see an ophthalmologist I can't afford to see if the infection extends into the cornea. My vision in that eye is extremely blurry, and iritis is serious enough to blind you if untreated.

So, I spent my weekend holed up in my dark room, watching movies with Monet and two cats, which was actually enjoyable. :)

Tomorrow I want to blog about ambiguity.