(PAL-ah-din) -- (n.) A heroic figure; a champion, defender, and advocate of a noble cause.
An exceptional word referring to exceptional souls. Paladins were knights to the court of Charlemagne but soon embodied all that was heroism, chivalry, and noble -- a masculine word not only in who it once described but it is also French; a language defined by gender delineations. Yet, like many words that, in their precision and beauty, surpassed their origins, "paladin" describes the spirit of a being who need not wear the armor of knights to be a passionate fighter for all that is good, paladins come in many forms. Unfortunately, in the intellectualization of modern society, in all its complications, the seduction of so-called "gray areas" constantly beckon men's souls -- tempting us to give in to the ease of moral neutrality. Paladins are not gray-area warriors. Paladins understand that the battle between Good and Evil is clear and unending: That right and wrong stand on two dichotomies -- opposite one another. Paladins are simply blind to gray-areas. They understand that the war between good and evil, regardless of scale, is a zero-sum game; one will win at the expense of the other and Paladins fight to ensure that all that is good is defended and all that is right prevails.
~Wordeby's by Chanel Rion
🦋 ART: "Winged Figure" (1889) Abbott Handerson Thayer
🦋 STYLE: Realism
🦋 NATIONALITY: American
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