The Author

You all know of the story of Excalibur I'm sure; the magic sword that can cut through stone. Excalibur was the sword that didn't crack...

When a sword is made, the iron smith begins by taking a piece of iron and placing it in a red, hot furnace. Next, the sword is placed on a metal table and pounded until it takes a shape. Then it is immediately dunked into cold water, only to repeat the three step process again. Once in awhile the metal cannot take the drastic temperature change, and cracks. If, and when, this happens, the iron smith will toss the piece of scrap metal aside. As soon as enough of the scrap metal is collected, the iron smith will heap it together and melt it over to be used and made into a sword once again.

You can use this aphorism to depict yourself as either the iron smith, the sword, or the scrap metal, but either way I think it is a clever way to look at life. Sometimes you find yourself in the furnace (your boyfriend is cheating on you, your mother is abusing you, you are addicted to cocaine). Other times you find yourself being pounded (you are failing a class, you get into an accident, you locked your keys in the car). And other times you find yourself in the cold water, immersed in relief (you get engaged, you have a beautiful, healthy baby, you receive a large inheritance from a long lost, and recently deceased relative). But the process is, well, just a process. You are going to have days where your in the furnace, and you are going to have days where you are in the cold water. But in the end, you can choose to be Excalibur. In the end, the ones who hurt you are the ones who cracked and became scrap metal.

Everything is connected my friends. Everything.