#thewolf

This one for me was difficult. It's not a Disney fairytale where everything works out in the end. It left me with a smile, tears, and an empty space.

I've been hesitant in love, avoiding it for fear of pain. This couple has gone through so much. The collective amount of time spent in person is so little for the amount of time their hearts have held onto each other.

Even when completely cross with someone, often if not always out of misunderstanding, it's impossible to completely let someone go. Once you love someone, they leave an imprint on your heart. Their presence in your life teaches you, molds you into someone different. We are always changing and it's a good thing. We are not only what we once were, but rather we are new in each moment for the past that has shaped us.

Here are some lessons learned in the show:

1) Withholding truth even to protect someone, never turns out favorable, for the truth always reveals itself, and sometimes with our intervention we end up doing more damage than good. (Honest Communication is key).

For example: Ma Zhaixing trying to protect Wolf Boy by pushing him away on their mountain resulted in her loosing Wolf Boy for years or how Chu Youwen (Prince of Bo, Wolf Boy) declined to tell Ma Zhaixing that he wasn't directlyresponsible for the death of her loved ones resulted in an internal conflict for her between love and hate which began to change her behavior and create a further divide between them.

2) You don't choose who you love, but once you realize you do love them, you must make a choice to either actively pursue, support, challenge, and love them each day no matter who they have become or you have to let them go.

Ma Zhaixing and Wolf Boy/Prince of Bo didn't realize for sometime that they were in love even when the signs were clear to the viewer and it is often that way in life. Ma Zhaixing fell for Wolf Boy and later found him living as Prince of Bo. Through the show she was conflicted over who he was then vs now and who she loved, yet in the end, she loved him both. Who we become is molded by who we were you cannot have one without the other.

Spoiler:

Meanwhile, Ji Chong, Prince of Jin fell for a free spirited and lighthearted, Ma Zhaixing but had to choose whether to keep her or let her go. Time was not on his side and neither was her heart. In the end, though he loves her, he knew her well enough and cared for her enough not to hold on tightly in a way that would diminish her spirit. He let her go and though it hurt, he wished her well, understanding that she and Prince of Bo had a flame (love) that could not be held by another. In the end, he still had her in his heart but he eventually could rest and adventure with another. He opened this heart toward another and letting love change from romance to a lesson is a very hard thing to do.

3) Blood does not define family.

Example: Wolf Boy was adopt by the Wolf's, by the Yungs, by his army, and by the Night Fiends and ultimately Ma Zhaixing adopted him into her heart. Though adopted, some would be considered family, brothers, while others were no family other than by name. First brother and Fourth Brother were closed to him and he bonded with them, while his adopted father and Second brother were users and abusers that should not consider true family even if they are by name. His colleagues, became close enough to him to be considered brothers, too.

There were so many more lessons but those three meant the most to me.

Now on to some other things, this guy had a hard time. Let's talk about sequence of events first, Wolf Boy lost his parents and grew up alone in the mountains, raised only by wolf's. Not the worst part at all. Then he meets his first human in Ma Zhaixing, only to be betrayed (or so he thought), attacked and fell off a the cliff to unimaginable pain. The Emperor abducted him, brutally trained him, adopted him merely for military advancement due to Wolf Boy's special skills from years with the wolfs. He then has to endure his first brothers death and fourth Brother hating him (temporarily), as well as, political garbage that puts him in tough spots. He also had to give up who he was and lie to everyone including Ma Zhaixing because identity. He had to wage war within himself to protect her and his other alliances only to have to watch her marry another and be apart from her when she was in arms reach. He then has to ultimately, loose her and live out at least six months of his life without her.

On top of all the physical drama. This guy recovers quickly. He gets shot and mauled by a tiger and still walks around the next day like nothing happened, not even wincing. The boy literally jumped off a cliff and landed and he was fine. Then within like a matter of a week to a month, he gets whipped with poison, chained to a wall where he can't really sleep or eat very well, then he takes a bunch of shots from the Jin arrows while inhaling more poison. He gets stabbed by Ma Zhaixing, carries her around a dangerous mountain while starving himself. He gets strap to a post where he almost set on fire, but definitely had to have had smoke inhalation issues. He gets put into a prisoner camp where he has to do hard labor and then gets beat up by everybody. He gets branded with a hot iron only to get poisoned again and then shot with more arrows while trying to save Ma Zhaixing from his brother in the woods. Then shot some more before he kills his brother and watches Ma Zhaixing die. WTF and half the time he is still walking around after all this physical pain not to mention all the emotional trauma.

Safe to say, I really did enjoy this story. The beginning had a lot of back and forth between their relationship then they brought in the love triangle, and I honestly was not expecting there to be no recovery from the poison. Plus, when he got shot at the end his blood was no longer black so I was like "oh my gosh he is saved" but maybe that was just like the little elixir thing that was supposed to help him for the moment and then he'd still die in 6 months. But then Ma Zhaixing had to go and sacrifice herself.

I really thought they were going to end up together. And I get the whole next "life thing" but that's the end of now and he still had to live without her for a while. That was just really saddening that they went through all of that and didn't end up getting to have a happily ever after. They had a few moments but and I guess that's the way it is often in life. Someone in a relationship is going to go before the other but it was just a little devastating on my emotions.

Timothy and Robin are in an open relationship and either looking for a third or looking to set each other up. Could be someone that already knows them.

Open to any gender and multiple muses

It wasn't uncommon for the pair to be seen at clubs like this. For both of them felt free, like they could be themselves without any constraints. Robin tonight was dressed in the more revealing outfit of the two. A pastel rainbow jockstrap, a silver holographic harness with matching collar and lead. To top it all off little pastel rainbow cat ears and tail. Truthfully a common look for him, if he was ever asked about it, he'd merely say he was a magical kitty that looked cute. Timothy however was a pure contrast to the cute rainbow look going on. He was adored in black leather trousers and matching harness. But together it seemed to work, just like their relationship which had been going strong for years.

Being an elevated being with a host of strong opinions based in both experience and academic literature, and particularly in the evolution of metaphor, mythology, and human abstract conceptualization and totemic associations in general I am often struck by fallacies adopted throughout different societal groups when they search for identity. Most I really could not gaf about in the least outside of the academic, some I am like really? Others I straight up laugh at the absurdity of. But one in particular I have noticed is so flawed, so inaccurate, and in practice so antithetical to the totem invoked it is both pathetic and irreverent, and frankly insulting. Yeap, obviously from the title it is the wish for so many men to self identify as wolves.

You are thinking 'hey you yourself self identify as a wolf.' No I don't. The wolf came to me twice and I was chosen to live as wolves must because it is what I have always been, and I would wish the wolf's life on no one. I was given one other choice, and it was the worse option. I have to be the wolf, or I die.

What do I mean twice chosen? Let me get there, but first I have to ask you a few questions...

Why do you self idenitify as a wolf? The wolf's life is hardship and suffering incarnate. It is full of hunger, pain, loss, eternal vigil and endless threats everywhere. He must live with and protect both pack and territory from the bear and the lion, and some of his prey is capable of killing him with ease. Often at the end of his days when he can no longer protect and provide for his mate and pack he is exiled to die alone. If you are fat, if you are an open shirt puffed chest douchebag obsessed with flashy shit, if you seek out weak easy women you wish to own or control, if you think you are the wolf of wall street, forex trading, the local bar, whatever... you are not a wolf. You are at best a dog living off the table of the man, at worst a bearded beta bitch licking his ass trying to be part of his pack. Then there is the world of the man and his society, which is antithetical to the life of the wolf and whose every advancement destroys the world the wolf lives in. Do you have to go out and be seen, do you have to share every thing you think makes you cool on social media, are you an adrenaline junkie who uses it to stoke the ego and assuage your fears? Then you are not a wolf. You are a Peacock fascinated by society's shiney things. Let that all sink in a few minutes. Then ponder the first answers.

Did you choose to call yourself a wolf because you admire and wish to emulate the wolf, or did the wolf come to choose you? Furthermore, did the wolf come to you in the world of dreams and visions as totem? Did you fear it and shrink, or reach out to it in desire of acceptance, and then did it approach and accept you as well as assist you in a trial or task, or fend off an attack or appearance by an equally powerful totem? Or did it attack you, your loved ones, or take your possessions? After the first manifestation did it then come to you in the waking world as well? And in what order did this occur? Then there are the questions how and why did the wolf appear in those worlds? And what powerful life events surrounded these manifestations? When claiming the identity of a powerful totem like the wolf there is risk, and no matter what there is always great struggle, suffering, and sacrifice demanded by the wolf, Only one totem demands more in sacrifice than the wolf, and when it comes to collect he takes everything, including your last breath. There are also rituals and specific rites of passage that must be observed and respected for the knowledge and blessings the wolf brings. In other words, practice care in the fate you would call to you by name out of pride, and when attempting to speak its tongue do so with humility and the willing acceptance of a heavy burden, not misplaced arrogance and a need to stoke a weak human ego with the trappings of power. Seeing a wolf at the zoo, and then having a dream about one does not make the wolf your spirit animal, just like searching out one or a hybrid to buy in some false belief a human can own a wolf does not make you a wolf. It makes you a fool for seeking and bringing the totem of suffering and hardship into your home as well as a deadly predator into your family if you have loved ones. Treats, a roof, and the occasional "No" are not going to serve you. You are in for a ride, and make sure you never forget there is an untamed engine of death and destruction next to everything you love, including your children should you have them.

Lastly, in both the dream/vision, and waking world, what did you give to the wolf. You cannot be part of the pack without giving to the pack. Tribute or service must be given. Again food, money, things of a material nature do not count.

I would love to see some replies from the "wolves" out there.

Pt 2 tomorrow.

The Wolf (TV series)

Darren Wang as Bo Wang (right)

Xiao Zhan as Ji Chong (left)

Photoshop / Digital Art

Talk: “ I've already finished watching The Wolf. And I think it's interesting how my opinion about a few characters changed. Very extreme with Princess Bao Na. At first, I thought: "Oh no. Not another annoying girl."  But in the end, I find her one of the coolest characters. I like female characters who are tough. But not in a mean way. I don‘t like the damsel in distress syndrome. Which was sometimes with the female character of Ma Zhaixing. But this's my personal opinion.