Tag: life lessons for children

A Little Room for Failure

Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength, mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.

Master Yoda, The Last Jedi

Leave it to the most controversial Star Wars movie to present one of the best lessons in the series. While people debate and rage over The Last Jedi’s merits as a film, an extremely valuable and important real life lesson slips by unnoticed. Somehow appropriate, in a poetic sort of way.


Failure is a fact of life, and it sticks with you more than success. It has a knack for engraving itself in your memory, whereas success is more like a sticker that peels off easily.


But what wise Master Yoda says (and many, many others beforehand – the quote didn’t originate with him) is true: Failure is a teacher. Do we learn from success? We are supposed to succeed, says society at large, and thus we tend to take it for granted. The shock of failing is a slap in the face. The wise person takes time to evaluate this shock and think over what went wrong.


When you fail and learn how you failed, you understand how to avoid making the same mistakes. You also learn generally uncomfortable truths, such as the limits of your abilities, your blind spots, skills that you need to practice or simply don’t have. So, you can either fail and learn and move on with life, or fail again and again in the exact same way, refusing to learn at all. Which is worse?


Failure is good and, dare I say, healthy. Kids should be allowed to fail at school. We shouldn’t be scared to let our children flunk exams. They’re in school to learn, so let them learn. And we adults aren’t so infallible, either. We mess up and trip over problems and don’t always make the right choices. We’re always learning, from our own mistakes and from others’.


So, don’t be afraid of failure. It will happen. When you goof up, it’s better to learn and move on than brood over a missed victory. Life has plenty of victories, but they tend to stay mum over their secret. Failure is always eager to teach.

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Many thanks for visiting my blog. I post updates on my writing career, I muse over storytelling and fiction, and I reflect on the curious and wonderful things in life.

“Hermes is not having the best time. He walks a fine line, and his duty as messenger of Olympus weighs heavily on him. Being a god in the modern age means living in a world that no longer believes in gods. How much can one deity accomplish when no one respects him anymore? And why do his instincts tell him that he, the son of Zeus, is losing favor with his own family?

Tensions abound. The upstart Young Gods play dangerous games using entire cities as their boards. Formless monsters strike from the nighttime shadows, terrorizing hapless mortals. Agents of rival pantheons scheme to thwart Olympus’ designs. In the thick of it all, Hermes does what he does best: trick, lie, and cheat his way to victory.“

How to Slay a Dragon, Part 2

Daddy?

What is it, kiddo?

I’m afraid to go to sleep. There’s a dragon outside my window.

Don’t be afraid. Be brave.

But dragons are scary! They’re so big and mean!

Then settle down here with me. Let me read you a story …

Do you remember being a kid? Do you remember the joys and the wonders? And the fears?

Kids quickly learn what fear is. Bravery takes a little longer to catch on. Sometimes, we need a helping hand.

Good thing we have fairy tales to teach us. They tell us that no dragon – no monster, obstacle, or problem – is invincible. They inspire us to surmount the impossible.

First, you have the setup: A dragon appears. The people tremble. It gobbles up their herds and destroys their homes. It sets up shop, and who’s going to ask a razor-toothed lizard the size of a semi to move? It may demand tribute – your daughters and sons will do, nicely, for starters. Oh, terrible day! What can they do to free themselves from this beast?

The dragon may have a name – Fafnir, Cetus, Smaug, Yamata no Orochi, Apophis – but just as often it does not. It varies in appearance, but its function is always the same.

Enter the dragon slayer. He, too, has many names, and he, too, is always the same person. He is the courageous one, the honorable one, the compassionate one. He takes pity on the poor villagers and vows to help them. He may be an underdog or he may already be renowned. Whatever the case, he fights the dragon. He slays the dragon. He wins.

Evil is beaten. Good triumphs. The nightmare ends.

These are the stories children read in fairy tales. These are the messages passed down by folklore from generation to generation. Evil doesn’t always have to win. There is a spark of hope in the darkness. The dragon slayer inspires us to realize that we aren’t stuck in the mud for the rest of our lives. Dragons aren’t unbeatable.

We grow up, and the dragons no longer look like giant lizards. They take many shapes and forms. They may be different for each of us depending on our circumstances, but we learn to recognize them. And we know that they can be beaten. Not with sword and spear, mind you. But with courage, perseverance, knowledge, and hope.

Because fairy tales taught us so.

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