Icarus, a Lessons to Remember Forever

Life is a sequence of chained experience, bad and good, yet they all should be used for our favor. In the text “Daedalus” by Thomas Bullfinch should be a great example and source of lessons and inspiration about how to succeed in life as a BMCC student, i find that Icarus statue in front of the college is a perfect daily reminder for students in order to succeed in their lives, and not only at BMCC.

Icarus paid a very expensive price for disobeying his father Daedalus directions; However, his tragedy should be a teaching lesson of discipline and obedience. As students, we all need to be guided and instructed by anyone who had useful knowledge or experience. According to “Daedalus” Thomas Bullfinch says, “He next equipped his son in the same manner and taught him how to fly… Icarus my son, I charge you to keep at a moderate height… keep near me and you will be safe”(3). This demonstrates that we always need to be guided by someone with much more experience to succeed in life. As told to Icarus by his father instructing him what to do but instead he did what he didn’t thought would happen. Our job as students is to follow and consider every single thing we are taught, by accepting what we learn with modesty and respect, as well taking knowledge from everyone, no matter what their social statues may be that; a homeless person is mostly looked as a useless member in society. Indeed, Icarus tragedy for disobeying his father’s directions is a useful lesson of discipline and obedience for us as students.

There could be morals to be taught from the sculpture icarus for BMCC students. One could be that was encouraging is not to be hubristic and taught us the importance of listening to and pay attention to wise advice. This lesson will be a memory for life at BMCC as students think about coming to college. Meaning that no matter where our goal is we eventually going to reach it but it takes courage and self confidence, and companion to move a step ahead in life. In the text “Daedalus” Bullfinch says, “when the boy, exulting in his career, began to leave the guidance of his companion and soar upward as if to reach heaven”(6) This quotes foreshadows Icarus' eventual fall. And describes him as quite careless and free-spirited, not thinking much about consequences of his actions. It also explains how icarus felt that if he goes high he will reach heaven, and he forgotten what his father told him, so he faces the truth of flying too high. When we do things in our career without knowing the consequences that we will face ahead of us, it will be a tangled circumstances in the future. Now that the sculpture of Icarus is a monumental at BMCC college, students will know that we all need to be guided, and BMCC is the right place to put us on the right path to a bigger future. At last, the Icarus statue will always remind students that hubris is a negative way of thinking to succeed in life.

Another lesson we learned from the sculpture Icarus is that We should all aim for the middle course and avoid extremes, in other words, be balanced. And This applies to all aspects of our life: physical, mental, financial, social, emotional and spiritual. We should not be too greedy and want everything and neither should we be too fearful and avoid everything. Greed and fear are two emotions that direct lot of what we do. We need to consciously be aware of these emotions as we live our lives and make sure we do not fall prey to either of them. We cannot change what we are given in life: in terms of physical attributes, the intelligence we are born with, the money we are born with, the people we are born with. But we can respond to life in a positive and balanced way and as students we all should think that way. For example, Learning new things everyday from going to college, from the world, from people and from the knowledge in books. And most of all, the Divine, which is what is everything in its truest sense. Accept we may not understand it all. Accept what we can understand of the majesty of the Divine and gradually allow it to fill our Life. Finally, learning from the lesson of being balanced and aim for the middle, is that we can control the greed and fear that prevent us from living this way. This is what true balance is and this is what will help us build true knowledge in all aspects of our life, and aim for a bright future at BMCC.

What actually Icarus can teach us as BMCC students is not to (Be egoistic and full of pride)- Being closer to the sun. or (too humble and empathetic)- Close to the sea. Icarus taught us to never let our ego affect our ability to succeed in life. On the other hand, being close to the ground also means that a person being too humble that he literally forgets what is meant to get rewards for self. this myth is a lesson about balance, about finding balance with our ego and with our gifts. According to “Daedalus” Bullfinch says, “Then rising on his wings, he flew off, encouraging him to follow, and looked back from his own flight to see how his son managed his wings”(4). This quotes describes Daedalus' feelings as a father, watching his son about to put on a mechanism which could potentially kill him. It compares the feelings to a father bird who is watching its baby bird first take flight, which is very much similar to the situation at hand, as Daedalus and Icarus are indeed flying towards freedom. Daedalus feels worried, thinking that although he has taught him his path to freedom, he has also confer upon him a knowledge and skill which could destroy him. It was Icarus choice not accept his gift as it was and to see it as enough. Instead, he chose to push it further, to a place where his gift was destroyed, and he destroyed himself in the process. If we don’t fly or we try to fly too high like Icarus, the myth teaches we'll find ourselves falling into the depths of emotional despair, drowning in our egoic feelings (as represented by the sea Icarus drowned in). To make the most of our gifts, we don’t need to make ourselves into more than we are, we don’t need to fly higher than we can and burn ourselves, but we also don’t need to stay down on earth, denying our own wings to fly. Icarus teaches us to have power over what we do with our gifts, and to what heights and destinations they take us. Thus, Icarus statue taught us to put our ego and pride away from thinking to succeed in college and life.

In conclusion, Icarus tragedy for disobeying his father is a teaching lesson of discipline and obedience, the moral of the sculpture Icarus taught BMCC students not to be hubris, we should all aim for the middle course and be balanced, not to be egoistic and full of pride. All are teaching lessons from the Icarus statue at BMCC that helped and will help future students remember these lessons forever. And it is an everyday reminder for students in order to succeed in their lives, anywhere but not only at BMCC. We all should reap those teaching lessons from the sculpture Icarus as BMCC students in order to have a satisfied and bright future.