Goddess of the Week: Athena

Image via WikipediaRois says she needs a goddess who will help her not give up on her blog.  She needs a goddess who values perseverance.  She needs the Greek goddess of war and wisdom, Athena.

Omnipotence has its advantages.  Solving problems quickly and efficiently is one of them.  As a consequence, most goddesses don't really embody perseverance, but they do value perseverance and they definitely reward people who don't give up.  Take, for example, Odysseus.

Odysseus was the wily Ithican prince who fought with the Greeks in the battle of Troy.  Athena backed Odysseus because he was a brains over brawn sort of soldier, and she was, after all, a brains over brains kind of goddess.  But the end of the war was just the beginning of Athena's aid to Odysseus.

Talk about perseverance!  It took poor Odysseus twenty years to get home.  He kept running into Cyclops and sirens and enchantresses and horrible storms.  (He'd pissed of Poseidon, but that's another story.) This one gal even turned all his men into pigs!  You ever try steering a ship with a crew of literal pigs?  Not easy!  But Odysseus never gave up.  He never got discouraged.  Every day he battled monsters, bad weather, and his own personal shortcomings to make it home to his his really underrated wife Penelope.  And--every time--just when things looked totally bleak, Athena would come to the rescue and save the day.  With Athena's help he made it home, too.  He got back just in time to kill all these dudes who wanted to marry poor Penelope.  It was pretty bloody.  But he got to be king!

Here's the thing, Rois, no one understands your dilemma more than I.  Every week I wonder why I blog, and sometimes it is so hard to sit down at the computer.  I've got two challenging kids.  I work.  I write.  I make way too little money, and I really need to make more.  But here I am.  Why?  Most of the time I have no fricking idea.  I did get a free book once.  I did get to eat pie with Deb and Carrie, my blogger friends from Arizona.  Just today someone at Grocery.com offered me the chance to write content for them for absolutely no money!   But, really, is this the best use of my time?  Is this the best way for me to help my family?  I doubt it.  But here I am, because sometimes, for reasons that only make sense to Athena, you just have to do things, and you just have to keep, keep, keep at it.  And when it gets hard, you have to think of Odysseus and you have to think of Athena, and you have to fight off your monsters. Whatever your monsters are, you have to fight them off.  Because the only other choice is to give up on yourself.  Of course, the time may come when blogging has nothing to do with what's important to you.  When that happens--sure--walk away.  Why not?  But until that time comes, you must persevere.  So: persevere.

Channel this goddess: when you want to give up, when it seems too hard to go one, when you need a little divine help on your hero's journey, when your workmates literally turn into pigs.


Need a goddess: I got goddesses!  Post a comment describing what you need or want a goddess for.  Then check back in a week or two to see what you got!  Yeah!  It's fun!