The Holy Grail

Sir Lancelot: [Sir Galahad the Chaste is being seduced by an entire castle full of young women] We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril.

Sir Galahad: I don’t think I was.

Sir Lancelot: Yes, you were. You were in terrible peril.

Sir Galahad: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.

Sir Lancelot: No, it’s too perilous.

Sir Galahad: Look, it’s my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can.

Sir Lancelot: No, we’ve got to find the Holy Grail. Come on.

Sir Galahad: Oh, let me have just a little bit of peril?

Sir Lancelot: No. It’s unhealthy.

Sir Galahad: I bet you’re gay.

Sir Lancelot: Am not.

–from one of the greatest films of all time, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Some years ago, I sat on the couch in my childhood home watching a History Channel special about The Holy Grail.  As an aspiring pirate/treasure hunter, I found it all so fascinating.  Just because I’m an atheist doesn’t mean I’m not fascinated and allured by religion (especially when there’s treasure to be had!).  In fact, I’ve read and studied many religions extensively, which is probably why I don’t believe in any.

If it were up to me, I’d leave my entire life if I discovered a treasure map that might lead to Captain Kidd’s treasure.  The Holy Grail is… well, The Holy Grail of treasure.  Sure, drinking from it and never dying is pure myth, but that doesn’t make it less fun to dream about.

I was probably a little stoned (I was probably really stoned), and people on the television program made their cases about whether or not the grail ever existed, and one man said he found it, which was a tiny alabaster cup that looked like something I would have used to for sake bombing.

I imagined myself as some Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider figure, surviving booby traps, running from mummies, and sword fighting zombie’s, to drink from the infamous grail, only to watch every one I love die, and I become an alcoholic, doomed to wonder the Earth eternally with my heartache (Jesus, even my fantasies are depressing as fuck).  I guess I was really only half watching the program, half writing an action/comedy screenplay in my head.  I think I probably do this a lot.

But then this other guy proposed that there was no Holy Grail, not in the literal sense.  But the Holy Grail was a state of mind, of absolute peace.  I shifted on the couch, and became suddenly more interested in the program than my own video game like fantasies, where I’m just murdering bad guys left and right.  The Holy Grail… not an object, buried in a booby trapped tomb, surround by curses of other worlds, but rather pure happiness, deep seeded within us, surrounded by intricate labyrinths created in one’s own mind.

I liked this version.  And it seemed just as unlikely to find as a physical Holy Grail.

This was not news to me.  This is basic psychology: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  Basically, you need food, shelter, and sleep (physiological needs).  Second, you need safety.  Then, you need belonging and love, which is why family and friendships are so darn important.  Most people get those.  It’s the fourth and fifth tier which are more complicated.  I don’t think most people even reach the esteem needs, though they probably have gotten glimpses of it from time to time.  But one must satisfy the lower level to achieve the higher level.  Which is why most people never reach the top.  The very top is self-actualization.  Maslow himself said that only one in a hundred people reach self actualization (which I think is generous, to be honest).  I remember when my psychology professor taught this, and I was excited knowing I was going to spend the rest of my life trying to achieve this.  Self actualization is achieving one’s highest level of potential.  It is the Holy Grail.

New York City is known for being one of the greatest (let’s face it, it’s the greatest) city on Earth.  And yet, most of the millions who call this Hellish Wonderland home, are flat out miserable.  Some one told me once that this was not a bad thing.  This is because people in New York are dreamers, and they’re chasing those dreams.  Even though most will fail, and disappointment will run more rampant through these streets than bed bugs, there is something so poetic about it.  You see, it’s an entire city full of Grail seekers.