A Story Worth Telling

As I consider career paths, I am confronted by several question:

  • What am I good at?
  • What can I do others can’t?
  • How can I be of most value?
  • How do I want to spend my time?
  • What would my ideal workday look like?
  • What am I motivated by, and why?
  • Who do I want to serve?
  • What industry do I want to help?
  • What mission needs my talents?
  • What do I want to do?

Something I’ve been beyond fascinated with since the pandemic slowed my life down is TV shows and movies. Most likely I began watching more closely because there wasn’t much else to do. But there’s also something beyond real through these on-screen stories–there’s truth. These stories, whether fictional or not, hold deep truths about our humanity and our individual/shared experience in this life. That’s important. It’s substantial.

I’m struck by another question as I consider a career telling stories:

  • How much do these stories really matter? Are they truly impactful in changing how people live their lives or are they merely entertainment for the masses?

I think about the story of Christ. And William Wallace in Braveheart. And Iron Man throughout the MCU. These myths are far beyond entertainment. They make people want to be better. They make people more heroic, more inspired, better than they were before. Their impact is real, and the masterful power of the literature or cinematic experience is real. It counts, for something. Not always, but sometimes.

It’s really been making me think.

Ragnarök

[THOR RAGNARÖK SPOLERS]

In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is the event where Asgard, the home of gods such as Thor, Loki, and Odin, is destroyed. However, the story of Asgard and Scandinavian gods doesn’t end there. After Ragnarök, Asgard is renewed.

Variations of these Norse myths are told throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) through the heroic God of Thunder, Thor, an original member of the Avengers. In Thor Ragnarok, well, you can guess what transpires. After Odin’s death, Thor’s sister Hela escapes her imprisonment in the underworld and tries to take over Asgard. Several other events lead to the inevitable destruction of Asgard–Ragnarök itself. Luckily, many Asgardians are saved through the likes of timeless and unlikely heroes (and their large spaceship borrowed from a distant planet).

During Ragnarök, the great Heimdall–the gatekeeper god who can see and hear throughout the cosmos while controlling the Bifröst (rainbow bridge that connects worlds)–assures Thor of what his father, Odin, conveyed in his final moments:

“Asgard is not a place, it’s a people.”

Heimdall to Thor

And so Asgardians were saved even though Asgard was destroyed. They were together on the safe harbor of their ship until their inevitable and unfortunate encounter with Thanos. After the events of Infinity War & Endgame, Asgardians set up a new home in the town of Tønsberg, Norway. A long way of Asgard–in a different realm, but enough of them to remember who they are.

What’s the moral of the story? No matter where you go, you will bring your people with you. Your family, your ancestors, the people who sacrificed so that you could be alive. They are you and you, them. People are not determined by where they live in the cosmos but by who they are. While your location impacts how you live, that you are alive will always unite you with your people, your culture, your home.

Asgard is a people, not a place. Asgard was destroyed, but Asgardians not. Now in the MCU, there is hope for Asgardians under their new leader, Valkyrie. They are rebuilding their home because they never lost it–it just changed location.

Moving away from home–be it destroyed or intact–doesn’t change your cosmic identity. While it may change how you live your life, you will always be the sum of all the people and choices that made you, both throughout the past and during your lifetime. You are quite a marvel, and you will always be more than your address.