Please note: I use the masculine pronoun to describe the Champion of the Soul here, but it is merely for convenience.
The idea of the champion goes way back into pre-history. The champion was brave, strong, ready to fight, and always, always male. He knew how to be tough, and he knew that expressions of emotional vulnerability were unacceptable. The champion won the applause of the people by fighting for them, or standing up against tyranny. There was an ethical code, of course. The most loved champions were moral. They knew the difference between right and wrong. Hitler, Sadam Hussain and Attilla the Hun were all very brave men. But they were also demonic. They crossed the line, and had little or no sense of justice. They lacked compassion.
The Champion lives on, of course. You see them at the cinema, in video games, TV shows, and in modern sporting contests. Much bloodied and fatigued, they fight on till their bodies can fight or play no more.
There is much to admire in the traditional champion. One cannot help but admire the bloody-minded, determined heroism of Russell Crowe’s Maximus in the movie Gladiator. Despite living in a hostile world where his life was in constant threat, and his body was regularly battered by opponents and life itself, he soldiered on.
Yet the world, and humanity has changed, and it will continue to change.
