![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2013\/03\/JackLondonCredo500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This article concludes a series that studied the life of Jack London<\/a>, and especially his display of the Ancient Greek concept of thumos<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n We hope you enjoyed our ten-part series on the life and thumos of Jack London. I know we enjoyed researching and writing it. I\u2019ve never found another man\u2019s story so fascinating and compelling. I\u2019ve learned a lot about Jack and still want to learn more! I\u2019d love to someday make a pilgrimage out to London\u2019s former home in Glen Ellen, California (which is now a state park). That a man\u2019s thumos can continue to burn and touch people well beyond the grave is truly a testament to the power of this force of soul.<\/p>\n Pondering the life of Jack London brings up many deep and interesting questions. Is a man with such high-pitched thumos almost destined to burn out (it\u2019s hard to imagine Jack as a 70-year-old man, isn\u2019t it)? Is it better to burn out than fade out? Is burning out selfish (Jack after all left behind a widow and two daughters)? If you\u2019re going to burn out, would it better to do so in a more glorious way than poisoning your body (an unofficial motto of the Navy SEALs is to \u201clive fast, die hard, and leave a good-looking corpse<\/i>\u201d)? Is ignorance really bliss or is it possible to attain vast knowledge and still retain your ideals? Would you rather experience all London did and die at 40, or double your lifespan but live a much more staid and mediocre life?<\/p>\n Every man will have different answers to these questions. I can only tell you of several of the takeaways I\u2019ve personally gotten from tracing the ups and downs of Jack London\u2019s life and the arc of his thumos.<\/p>\n Do more and be more.<\/b> When reading London\u2019s biographies and books, something deep within me, a hunger for something more, is greatly stirred \u2013 I just want to get out and explore! Jack described this stirring in himself as a voice at the back of his consciousness –\u201ca curiosity, desire to know, an unrest and a seeking for things wonderful that I seemed somehow to have glimpsed or guessed.\u201d By harkening to this call, Jack had some pretty amazing adventures and was able to commit with superhuman discipline to self-education<\/a> and honing his craft as a writer. But even he himself said the voice came in a whisper to him, and I think oftentimes we have a hard time hearing it \u2013 and answering it — in our own lives. I know I do. Responsibilities pile up, fear gets in the way, we rationalize away our dreams and desires as silly or impossible to fulfill, and content ourselves with the ordinary.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch has been for me the best education in the world, and I look for it more and more. Man must have better men to measure himself against, else his advance will be nil, or if at all, one-sided and whimsical.\u201d \u2013 Jack London<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I know I\u2019ll never be one-tenth as cool as Jack London \u2013 he was a one-of-a-kind character even in his own time \u2013 and his life honestly makes me feel pretty boring and inadequate! But in the best possible way. Measuring yourself against someone great doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll necessarily ever reach their level, but it can inspire you do better in your own place in the world \u2013 to make the most of whatever situation you are in. Jack London inspires me to read more, to work harder, and to figure out how I \u2013 a dad with plenty of obligations — can add more adventure to my own life.<\/p>\n Keep challenging yourself.<\/b> London found that reaching the heights of success felt empty; his real joy came in the midst of his adventures and the godlike act of creating. His life really demonstrated to me how the journey and struggle is far more satisfying than the destination. Yeah, sounds like a bumper sticker, I know, but it\u2019s truth. The recognition, fame, and money you get from reaching a high achievement does not bring lasting fulfillment. The reward is really in the striving \u2013 in the satisfaction that comes with stretching your mental and physical abilities to their limit, in having experiences that expand your soul, and in sensing yourself transform into a better man. Once you finish one challenge, you have to find a new one \u2013 even if it\u2019s of a much different variety than the last.<\/p>\n Keep pushing.<\/strong> Like many success stories, London’s hardly moved in a straight line. He’d be stuck working in a factory, and then have a seemingly life-changing adventure, and then be back working at a factory, and then off on another adventure, only to return to the assembly-line once again. He received tons of rejections before magazines and publishers accepted his writing. But he always saw these setbacks as temporary. Instead of being discouraged, he kept looking for new opportunities and constantly worked to improve himself until he finally took off once and for all.<\/p>\n Take time to recharge<\/b>. Another thing I gleaned from Jack is a greater understanding of the fact that while the white horse of thumos can certainly lead to greatness and success, if driven too hard and for too long, you risk weakening it and letting the dark horse of your appetites take control. I\u2019m a huge proponent of working like hell to reach your goals and find success, and I\u2019m happy when I\u2019m hustling<\/a>. But I have a really hard time knocking off and taking time to recharge \u2013 there\u2019s no clear quitting time or hours at this kind of job and I could keep at it 24\/7 if I wanted. Boy, did Jack and Charmian\u2019s last conversation hit too close to home for me. Jack showed me that such a full-speed-ahead approach may work in the short-term, but you\u2019ve got to pace yourself if you want to stick with something for the long haul. It\u2019s all about the 20-Mile March! <\/a><\/p>\n Hold onto your ideals<\/b>. As Jack got older, he lost faith in the ideals that had fired his youth and animated his spirit. He felt that he knew too much, and by the end of his life he had become hollow and jaded. I do think that the more educated you become, the harder it gets not to fall victim to a deeply cynical outlook about people and life. Cynicism is like a cancer that starts small and then spreads to devour every bit of awe and sparkle and magic threaded throughout our existence. But I do think it’s possible to hold onto your ideals without burying your head in the sand. And not simply possible, but necessary. Every man needs a purpose \u2013 a set of beliefs rooted in his very core that he can full-throatily, wholeheartedly endorse \u2013 without apology, or wink, wink irony, or an endless list of caveats.<\/p>\n Heeding the seasons of thumos<\/b>. One of the most interesting things to come out of studying Jack London\u2019s life was reflecting on the way the \u201clifecycle\u201d of thumos really mirrors that of the development of the brain.<\/p>\n A few months ago we did a two-part series on the importance of not wasting your twenties<\/a>. We first talked about the unique powers and opportunities of the twentysomething brain, which include a propensity for deep passion, a keen curiosity about others and the world, and fearlessness in the face of risk (remind you of anything?). We explored the way these propensities mellow as your brain finishes developing and \u201csetting up\u201d in your mid-twenties, but explained that while your intensity dims, you become better able to plan, make decisions, process probability, set goals, and handle uncertainty<\/a>. As you move into your thirties, the passionate part of your brain mellows while its executive functions strengthen.<\/p>\n That series has come to mind frequently as I\u2019ve studied thumos and Jack London\u2019s life, and it seems to me that the development of the brain and the nature of thumos are connected. The latter may not solely be a philosophical, metaphysical concept, but a neurological one as well. Just as your brain has seasons, your thumos does too, and it\u2019s important to understand and take advantage of those seasons in their proper time. What we said about the brain is that it develops in such a way that the twenties are the ideal time for launching your passions, while the subsequent decades are best for then building what you launched. Or another way of looking at it is to say that the elements of drive, fight, and emotion of thumos are pitched highest in your youth, while its elements of decision-making, judgment, and steadfastness emerge more strongly as you age. The different elements of thumos come to the forefront at different times in your life, and they emerge precisely when you need them most.<\/p>\n The ancient Greeks recognized these different seasons of a man\u2019s thumos. They associated thumos most strongly with youth, but felt it operated throughout a man\u2019s life. A perfect example of the different seasons of thumos can be seen in comparing Achilles in the Iliad <\/i>and Odysseus in the Odyssey. <\/i>Achilles was a young man, probably no older than 18 or 19, and was filled with fierce thumic anger and drive. He sought glory and honor above all else. And he got it. He just had to die in the prime of his life to obtain it.<\/p>\n Odysseus, on the other hand, was older. He had a family and kingdom back at home waiting for him. He didn\u2019t care as much about glory as he did about getting back to his beloved Ithaca alive. Odysseus still had thumos; it just didn\u2019t burn as white-hot as Achilles\u2019, and he used it in a different way. It was with his thumic cunning and wiles that he was able to make wise decisions, outwit his foes, and return home to live a long and peaceful life.<\/p>\n If you were to ask me whom I identified with more 10 years ago, I would have told you Achilles. I was fiercely driven to reach my goals and become a success. But now that I\u2019m 30, and have a family and a mortgage, I find myself relating to the man of many wiles more and more. My passion and drive for success have dimmed, while my desire to be a wise steward over what I have already gained has grown.<\/p>\n First a man becomes a warrior<\/a>; then, if he survives the battle, he becomes a king<\/a>. First thumos drives one to conquer, then it aids him in managing and growing what he has attained. Thumos is needed in each season, but in different ways.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think Jack London understood this. Or if he did understand it, he didn\u2019t accept it. He kept flogging the drive component of this thumos that had pushed him to success in his twenties, well into his thirties, but to increasingly diminished returns. And he neglected to harness and train the wise decision-making and judgment elements of his thumos, letting what he had already gained slip away. His thumos was operating out of season \u2013 failing to harvest in the fall and planting fruitless seeds in the winter. He had thrived as the warrior, but could not transition into being the king.<\/p>\n Be a man.<\/b> Manliness can be tough to define. But boy, we sure know it when we see it. It\u2019s something easier to feel than to articulate. Despite his flaws, Jack London\u2019s manliness leapt off every page he wrote, and that others wrote about him, with palpable force. Simply learning about him makes me want to be more of a man. Would we all be so privileged as to receive the kind of succinct tribute an old sourdough offered to London upon his death:<\/p>\n “I loved the man because\u2014because he was a man; By the <\/b>Turtles of Tasman<\/a><\/b>, He was a man!”<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Farewell, Jack. Thanks for everything.<\/p><\/div>\n We\u2019d like to end this series with our favorite piece of Jack\u2019s writing, the one that perhaps best sums up the feeling of thumos that blazed through his life.<\/p>\n The selection comes from London’s fictional novel, The Iron Heel<\/em>, published in 1908. The narrator, Avis Everhard, describes her husband Ernest, and shares his favorite poem, one which speaks to the infinite power and potential of man and the desire to live life to the fullest:<\/p>\n But he had pride. How could he have been an eagle and not have pride? His contention was that it was finer for a finite mortal speck of life to feel Godlike, than for a god to feel godlike; and so it was that he exalted what he deemed his mortality.<\/b> He was fond of quoting a fragment from a certain poem. He had never seen the whole poem, and he had tried vainly to learn its authorship. I here give the fragment, not alone because he loved it, but because it epitomized the paradox that he was in the spirit of him, and his conception of his spirit. For how can a man, with thrilling, and burning, and exaltation, recite the following and still be mere mortal earth, a bit of fugitive force, an evanescent form? Here it is:<\/p>\n Joy upon joy and gain upon gain The froth of Pride, the tang of Power, The man you drove from Eden\u2019s grove Packed with the pulse of an unborn race, The man you drove from Eden\u2019s grove What did you take from learning about the life of Jack London? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Read the Entire Jack London Series:<\/strong><\/p>\n Part 1: Introduction<\/a> This article concludes a series that studied the life of Jack London, and especially his display of the Ancient Greek concept of thumos. We hope you enjoyed our ten-part series on the life and thumos of Jack London. I know we enjoyed researching and writing it. I\u2019ve never found another man\u2019s story so fascinating and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,42272],"tags":[42299,42371],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-32046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-manhood","tag-jack-london","tag-london-series"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/03\/JackLondonCredo500-500x280.jpg","aom":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/03\/JackLondonCredo500-372x230.jpg","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/03\/JackLondonCredo500-320x465.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32046"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141464,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32046\/revisions\/141464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32046"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=32046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2013\/04\/londonfare.jpg\")
\nAre the destined rights of my birth,
\nAnd I shout the praise of my endless days
\nTo the echoing edge of the earth.
\nThough I suffer all deaths that a man can die
\nTo the uttermost end of time,
\nI have deep-drained this, my cup of bliss,
\nIn every age and clime\u2014<\/p>\n
\nThe sweet of Womanhood!
\nI drain the lees upon my knees,
\nFor oh, the draught is good;
\nI drink to Life, I drink to Death,
\nAnd smack my lips with song,
\nFor when I die, another ‘I’ shall pass the cup along.<\/p>\n
\nWas I, my Lord, was I,
\nAnd I shall be there when the earth and the air
\nAre rent from sea to sky;
\nFor it is my world, my gorgeous world,
\nThe world of my dearest woes,
\nFrom the first faint cry of the newborn
\nTo the rack of the woman\u2019s throes.<\/p>\n
\nTorn with a world\u2019s desire,
\nThe surging flood of my wild young blood
\nWould quench the judgment fire.
\nI am Man, Man, Man, from the tingling flesh
\nTo the dust of my earthly goal,
\nFrom the nestling gloom of the pregnant womb
\nTo the sheen of my naked soul.
\nBone of my bone and flesh of my flesh
\nThe whole world leaps to my will,
\nAnd the unslaked thirst of an Eden cursed
\nShall harrow the earth for its fill.
\nAlmighty God, when I drain life\u2019s glass
\nOf all its rainbow gleams,
\nThe hapless plight of eternal night
\nShall be none too long for my dreams.<\/p>\n
\nWas I, my Lord, was I,
\nAnd I shall be there when the earth and the air
\nAre rent from sea to sky;
\nFor it is my world, my gorgeous world,
\nThe world of my dear delight,
\nFrom the brightest gleam of the Arctic stream
\nTo the dusk of my own love-night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nPart 2: Boyhood<\/a>
\nPart 3: Oyster Pirate<\/a>
\nPart 4: Pacific Voyage<\/a>
\nPart 5: On the Road<\/a>
\nPart 6: Back to School<\/a>
\nPart 7: Into the Klondike<\/a>
\nPart 8: Success at Last<\/a>
\nPart 9: The Long Sickness<\/a>
\nPart 10: Ashes<\/a>
\nPart 11: Conclusion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"