There will come a time in life when you face the gaping jaws of a Black Forest. It will be a chance to carve out a path solely your own. In the heart of this daunting wood is your own person grail – a bliss beyond your wildest imagination. It must be experienced alone. It cannot be shared, except in that people will see its after effects in you – a slight transfiguration into the hero’s visage.

You could hesitate, glance over your shoulder at a lighter patch of wood and consider the well-worn path where groups enter the forest with a guide. It’s safer. There is literally no fear and you’ll be protected on all sides. There will be no divine bliss at the end, just contentment, slight malaise, and the delusion that you have conquered something significant. I mean, everyone you love is there, right? That has to count for something.

Nope.

If you want to walk the hero’s path, you must muster up enormous courage, break away from the masses, and find your own edge of The Black Forest to walk into.