The Nine Noble Virtues. Pt 1: Courage

In case you aren't familiar with Viking belief systems, the Nine Noble Virtues are as follows:

1. Courage

2. Truth

3. Honour

4. Fidelity

5. Discipline

6. Hospitality

7. Self-Reliance

8. Industriousness

9. Perseverance

Courage

Focus for a moment on that word. Courage. What do you see in your mind? Overcoming challenges? Fighting against great odds? Facing your fears? 

I should hope that you see all of that. I should also hope that you can focus on a smaller scale than what I picture every time that I imagine the word. 

Or maybe you're a lot like me and you imagine a single man (or woman) going up against an army of people who would harm him (or her) or who have suppressed an entire people and are finally going to be brought asunder by a single person.

And that's great. That is a very powerful image to have in your mind. To see King Leonidas and his 300 men facing the innumerable legions of the Persian Army. Or maybe you imagine David fighting the giant Goliath, the small frame of David a stark contrast against the huge countenance of Goliath. Or you imagine Frodo, making his way to Mordor, up the mountain, struggling, in pain, but never giving up. Very striking, very powerful. Inspiring.

And yes, these are amazing examples of courage. There's no doubt about that. 

But take a step back for a moment. Think about this on a personal level, because really, that is what the Nine Noble Virtues are about. These are things you want to uphold as a person. These are things you want to be seen by the others in your life. 

Courage.

Boil it down to the basics. Think about your life. What does Courage mean in the life of someone reading my blog? You probably live in a First World Country. You obviously have a computer, or a smartphone. And if not, you clearly have access to one. You probably have food, shelter, clothing. Maybe not expensive clothing, and maybe not gourmet food, but you probably have a relatively decent amount and can be considered to be 'comfortable' in relation to a starving homeless child in Africa. Right?

Sure.

So what do you have to be courageous about?

Just because you have it relatively easy doesn't mean that you don't have to have courage in some things. And courage doesn't just mean fighting for everything.

You could have the courage to get out of bed and go to your shitty job every day so that you can continue to pay the bills so that you can continue to live a relatively comfortable life.

You could have the courage to stand up for that weird kid in class who gets picked on every day.

You could have the courage to squash that spider in the bathroom even though you have immense arachnophobia.

Okay, so that last one was a little bit more of an exaggeration, but I think it still applies.

Having courage doesn't mean that you always have to fight against great odds or overcome immense challenges. Sometimes, courage means that you don't give up -- and that includes giving up on yourself.

"Yellow Bandana Bondage"

I coined the phrase "Yellow Bandana Bondage" years ago as a joke. It was in reference at first to the yaoi fandom in Battle Royale. No, I won't explain that, you can figure that out yourself. But it later became adapted to refer to a habit of mine.

That habit is that I almost always have a bandana wrapped firmly around my head. And if it's not on my head, it's usually in my pocket or in my bag. The colour doesn't matter, but my favorite bandana was my yellow one. Again, the yellow bandana habit started in reference to Battle Royale. One of the characters wears a yellow bandana and I thought it was cool.

However, the "bandana bondage" comment came about in regards to me when I was asked why I have a bandana.

Nowadays, it isn't so much about emulating a character from a movie.

I have a very specific reason why I try to always have a bandana on me no matter what.

Zombie Apocalypse preparedness.

Yeah, that's right. I'm really a dork that way, but I've discovered that a bandana is extremely useful for more than just looking badass. I think that a bandana is one of the most essential things that anyone can have on them, especially in a crisis situation. Like a piece of rope, a bandana has many uses.

The most important one, in my opinion, is that you can make an excellent tourniquet from a bandana. And believe me, I'm accident prone on even the best of days. Especially when I'm stomping around through the underbrush and playing survivalist.

Then of course, if you find edibles, you can carry them back with you in your bandana.I have brought many a wild raspberry home wrapped in clothing items. (This is also why I usually have a jacket, hoodie or other kind of layered clothing.)

And of course, in the worst case scenario, you can tie up that annoying intruder, loose cannon member of your party or that new love-interest who you didn't know you were in love with until you were making out in the trees.

Yellow bandana bondage indeed.

Day Jobs and Bootcamps

I'm so sorry I've been neglecting you, my loves.

And also you, my followers and readers. (You know I love you all too though, right?)

It's the busy season for me. Not only do I write, act, perform improv comedy and generally not sleep, but I run a business making costumes and stuff. And it's the busy season. My "day job" as a seamstress has been eating up all my time. I'm sorry that I've been neglecting you all, but I gots ta' pay da bills, as it were.

All right, now that my apologetic self is satisfied, I can ramble for a minute.

Camp Nano is happening in June (and August, but let's just focus on June for now.)

I am so not prepared. At all.

I find that I have a lot of difficulty writing in the summer. I don't know if it's because I wanna be outside, or if my Muses are all dormant or if it's just for some other crazy reason. (Not counting the seamstressing or working at the geek store.) Whatever it is, I have a lot of trouble figuring out writing when the weather is nice.

So I'm a little torn about what to do for Camp Nano.

I REALLY need to write something. Something new and shiny. I need to get away from the projects bogging me down during Camp Nano 1. I just need to create something for myself. And you know, something awesome to submit later.

And that's really where I'm struggling. I know that during NaNoWriMo, I can pump out a lot of words, but then the editing part kills me. KILLS ME. I hate editing. As I've mentioned.

So instead of competing with myself (and certain others) I think what I wanna do is write my 50,000 word novel (and then however many I need to write additionally to finish the story) and then edit for the rest of the month. I don't really have that many other things to do during June, which is nice. And the other show preparations aren't on a major short time frame like the ones I'm doing right now, so it should be a little more laid back. Right?

In theory, anyway.

But that's my goal: to write a novel and edit it during June so that it is ready for beta readers/2nd edits with the intention to submit to a publisher before the end of the year.

That's not too lofty is it? If I have editors who are fast?

Oh right, and I should PROBABLY get those Spec scripts finished because I wanna flash 'em at people soon too.

No rest for the writers.

Who all is doing Camp NaNo this year? Wanna race?

Kai needs to sleep. No seriously.

As always, email her with your complaints at thekiriyamaheir@gmail.com
Or find her on twitter @thekiriyamaheir