Kyle, an Achilles for Our Time and Recess Yard

One morning this past week, as we were driving into school, Ian and I got into a conversation about the underlying dynamics that determined the fate of the Achaians and Trojans in the Iliad.  It felt a bit like trekkies talking about the Klingons or Daniel and Ian talking about Mine Craft, except that this particular obsure niche of fantasy, out of which one could spill countless review and analysis, happened to be Homer.  We were talking about what it meant to have the gods on your side - how it made a critical difference to have Zeus on your side, but it only really mattered when events on the ground became sufficiently dramatic to capture the gods' attention and get them to actually get back into active participation mode.

Then we talked about Achilles.  I shared with Ian the sense - I think it's pretty explicit, but I haven't touched Homer since college, so I don't remember for sure - but anyway, there seems to be a strong indication that Achilles was the sine qua non of the Achaian effort - they couldn't have done it without him, and that's why the drama to get him and Agamemnon to resolve their little disagreement was so critical to the larger story.  I said he was like a talisman - the guy that, if you got him on your side, would ensure that you won an otherwise unwinnable war.

At that point, Daniel observed that Achilles must be something like Kyle.  Kyle is a sixth-grader at Daniel's school (where Daniel is in third grade), and the thing about Kyle is that, he's so good at games - active, sporty games - that if you got him on your side, you'd win.  I think being a sixth grader is probably a factor, but maybe it's just the Magic of Kyle.  As a result of Kyle's great athletic prowess, everybody wants him on their team.

I'm very pleased that these ancient Homeric paradigms live on, and that we have Kyle-the-Sixth-Grader to keep the Achilles dynamic alive for 21st century American children playing dodge-ball at recess.

(December, 2014)