When Bill Colton was just fourteen years old he met his soul mate. Now a college junior he leaves home for Boulder Colorado to pursue her. Nothing can stop him…not his tyrannical mother or Katarina’s overly protective father. Bill believes he can accomplish anything, but like most young men he is also naïve, inexperienced and impulsive. As Bill struggles with his inner demons, one of his college professors challenges him to find out who he really is; what is it that cages his’s soul? Bill agrees to participate in a “Vision Quest,” a Native American tradition for initiation into manhood. Bill could become stronger from his experience or he could lose his life.
“The Frog King” is a fairytale about finding “soul.” The American Indians have a saying, “The soul has gone away.” In our modern world there are so many factors that attempt to estrange the soul from our essential being, the public schools, the everyday work place to name a few. When this happens we become neo-stoic; a belief that humankind should be free from passion, unmoved by grief or joy, indifferent to pleasure or pain, and able to submit without complaint to the unavoidable necessity by which all things are governed. Sound familiar?
But, despite his upbringing and faced with tremendous difficulty, the protagonist learns first hand that he can have it all. He can be in the world and be himself at the same time. He finds “The Courage to Be” is more than a symbol or a dream, it’s a way of being and loving in spite of uncertainty, insecurity and imperfection.
“The Frog King” is a modern fairy tale because it addresses the archetypes of human consciousness in a manor similar to the Brothers Grimm, “Iron Hans.” It’s a rite of passage, coming of age into manhood, as Robert Bly says, something seriously lacking in the youth of today. Unfortunately, in our contemporary world, where we are spoon fed the knowledge of industry, we learn very little about the workings of the soul. As a culture we’ve forgotten the powerful symbols and overlook the fairy tale’s mythological significance…soul significance.
Excerpt
"Reach out--touch the cosmos--touch the earth. Know that you are one with all things. Separateness is an illusion, a game ego chooses to play. Reality is an untamed wildness in the universe, beyond thought, reason and words. Reality is not the ego that society teaches. Your soul is a voice crying in the wilderness. It cries because social ego stops you from seeing the very essence of what you are, a being of divine and radiant energy."
"But how, how do I stop ego?" Bill asks.
"Stop doing what you’ve always done. It’ll only get you what you’ve always gotten."
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