For most of us, daily life consists of safely repetitive, unchallenging routines. Interruptions, like a loss of power from a storm, show how dependent we are on reliable conveniences. When we lose those conveniences, we resent it to the core. Here we see a shift in our sense of being from the not so distant past—a dependency that draws us from our understanding of creatureliness to something less defined.

We are creatures of our times, shaped by the pace of innovative technology that both serves and distracts us. We are hooked by fleeting satisfactions that come to us through television, the Internet, cell phones, video games, sports, escapist reading, and hobbies that leave us unfulfilled. While this can be seen as pleasurable and even necessary, we know in our hearts that something is missing—a direct experience of fulfillment.

To fulfill ourselves, we feel an inner urge to be special. Our skills, talents, experiences, and unique perspectives actually do make us special—but we may not utilize or develop them adequately.

To compensate in our minds, we turn to fantasy. This doesn’t change our situation. It makes them more tolerable—but also more permanent and ingrained.

Some find Images of chivalry attractive, embodying a lost age of honor, civility, noble heroism, and romance ripe for fantasy. We imagine ourselves mighty warriors, no matter how unreal. This would set us up for disappointment if we didn't recognize fantasy as nothing more than a harmless diversion. Nevertheless, the contrast fosters unreality and dissatisfaction at the same time.

Chivalry-Now tells us to channel imagination away from fantasy—on a path that leads to self-fulfillment.

The substance of fantasy comes from imagination. We see romanticized images of knights and ladies and imagine what it would be like to be them. Fantasy then invites us to lose ourselves in a dream.

But when we apply imagination to actually improve our lives instead, it can serve as a powerful force for actual change. Paul Tillich said it well: “He who is not able to transcend the given situation in which he lives through his own imagination finds himself imprisoned in that situation.”

Fantasy, no matter how focused or obsessive, is a poor substitute for changing one’s life for the better. While both are derived from imagination, their objectives are different. One diverts the mind from the drabness of daily life. The other finds ways to transform and improve it.

By positively tapping into our powers of imagination, we can make real change possible. We also find the enthusiasm to do that as well. It empowers us to act in real life, rather than escape into passive diversion.

The world needs champions. We fulfill our truest natures by becoming those champions. Chivalry-Now’s depth, breadth, and drive shows us how. It helps us begin our knightly quests by recognizing and living one in our daily lives, seeing with attentive eyes, listening with ears that hunger to learn, deriving lessons from each success and failure that actually transforms the average person into a champion.

Chivalry-Now shows us how by drawing together the history, culture, aspirations, and intellectual tools to do just that. It speaks of today’s world with all its strengths and weaknesses, virtues and horrors, and calls us to champion it in new and exciting ways. Its moral propositions focus truth against lies and deceptions, which our reasoning minds depend on. While accepting our human frailties, it articulates ideals for which to strive that pick us up whenever we fall.

YOU are the one who holds the potential autonomy of activated reason and conscience. That means YOU are the one in control. Your individual quest is based on freedom rather than some ideology that seeks to control you.

With that in mind, we invite you to imagine the possibilities—and bring those possibilities to life.