Where is my Moriarty? And if I am the villain of my life's tale,
where's my Sherlock Holmes? Whichever my role may be in this story, is
there anyone I can tumble over the waterfall with at the end?
I have no illusion that the caliber of my character is great--or
neat--enough to put me in such archetypal roles as Moriarty or Holmes,
but surely there is an equivalent somewhere, some fiendish equal or
heroic spoil to spur me on towards fulfillment of my character's full
potential. I have had plenty of amiable, friendly rivalries among
likes, but no equal and opposites. All of the 'enemies' I've had in my
life have been smaller than me. Bullies. Insecure and combative
inferiors. I've learned lessons from the challenges they've posited
me, but have neither exceeded the speed limit nor broken a significant
sweat in my rebuttals and concessions to their claims.
Perhaps villains (or heroes) exist in order to bring you to your
senses if you've left them. Like car crashes. Have a car crash early
on in your driving career, and you'll be more attentive for awhile.
But if you are an attentive driver all the while, you'll probably not
have a car crash in the first place (at least not caused by you).
Perhaps it's the same for living. A person who lives the strenuous
life, examining the details and constantly upping the bar, doesn't
need a villain. Their life, while appearing vanilla from the outside,
is lived mainly internally. It seems a balance is typically arrived at
in one way or the other, and I don't mean that it any cosmic sense
whatever. I had to deal with a few bullies because of things beyond my
control. Bullies are free agents, and will strike weak targets. I have
made myself less of a weak target in light of my interactions with
bullies in the past, therefore I'm better equipped to deal with
bullies.
Even if I'm fifth business in some story far larger than myself,
within my own existential brackets, surely there're equivalent parts
in my story reflective of the large one. Perhaps I'm looking at it
wrong. Maybe what's lacking is a high ideal. Holmes lived for the
game, and so did Moriarty. Both played for different sides, and thus
their yin-yang was formed. Superman stands for Truth Justice and the
American way, which is in opposition to Lex Luthor's more
machiavellian machinations. Equals in some way, divided by ideology.
Where is my antithesis?
I'm willing to consider that I am my own greatest challenger in this
life, that I have to be my own rogue's gallery. That's reasonable,
but not as romantic. I pause here, because in spite of myself, I
believe in karma. What exactly am I asking for?
With Little Opposition
Spencer Troxell lives in Cincinnati with his wife and two kids.His work has appeared all over the web. He has an upcoming chapbook, Mule and Horse, due out April by WV? Ebook Publishing. Keep up with him at spencertroxell.blogspot.com