Demystified

There are many places in the world that stand apart - literally. They’re isolated, completely cut off from the rest of the world. To some, that seems like heaven; no noisy neighbours, just peace and quiet. To others though, it’s a nightmare - you’ve heard hell is other people, but it’s often the other way around. And because of how far they are from civilisation, the rest of us are left to pick up where they left off when they don’t come back.

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Everyone has a hero, whether we admit it or not. Someone we look up to, someone who we aspire to be like and emulate. Oftentimes they’re people who’ve indelably made their mark on human history - pioneers, the first of their kind. Sadly though, we don’t always get closure on their extraordinary tales - sometimes they fly straight off the page of the history book, and into the unknown, never to return.

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Humans, in general, like explosions - they’re cool! Fireworks are a pivotal part of celebrations across many cultures. Sometimes, however, that event is out of our control; sometimes it flattens thousands of kilometers of forest without warning, an explosion over 1,000 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb, right out of nowhere then gone in a flash. Kaboom.

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Audacity is a word that gets tossed around a lot. We call people who wear something unusual ‘gutsy’ and someone who haggles in shops has ‘bravado’. So what do you call a man who uses what might have been a fake bomb to hijack a plane, then parachutes out, at night, in the rain, with the equivalent of a million dollars in ransom money, never to be seen again? I am serious.

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Humans like to think we can solve every mystery - that’s partly why I do this show! We have an obsession with patterns, codes, and strange symbols. Evolutionarily it meant seeing the tiger in the long grass, now it mostly means magic-eye books. But what happens when a mystery we think is solved, turns out not to be? When we go back on our original solution, for a new one? Again... and again... and again...

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Writers will often borrow a concept from mythology for their work - there’s no copyright on a culture, even if it isn’t yours. But sometimes people take these things a little too far. Some people become so obsessed with these mysterious foreign ideas that they spend millions organising genuine expeditions to prove their veracity. After all, who doesn’t want to live forever?

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Art is interesting - it tells us about the person who made it. Where they came from; what they’re interested in; how they see the world. Some art is grand in scale, so grand that you can’t help but stand back and marvel. Some art however is so grand that you need to stand *really* far back. At the top of a mountain, say. It’s all about perspective...

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The greatest legends of ancient civilisations are steeped in the trappings that come with a story told and retold. Larger than life characters, brave heroes and evil villains, great battles and wars that never end, with the gods themselves personally invested. But in all these great stories, there’s always a kernel of truth - something that actually happened; or a city that really stood, and fell.

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Some people are driven by a singular purpose - creating, building, discovering, and much more. Those who are driven by the singular desire to explore are often those who we remember the most, but this legacy comes with a certain amount of danger. Because sometimes that drive to go out means you don’t come back.

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Keeping in contact is important - as someone who’s lived overseas from my family before, I can attest to that. It helps us keep track of those who mean the most to us, our friends and families. When we lose contact it can make us anxious; when we lose *all* contact, we’re simply left in bewilderment.

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