Gratitude Practice 2022 Nov 11: The Hero's Journey
According to a MasterClass article (link noted below), "The Hero’s Journey is a common narrative archetype, or story template, that involves a hero who goes on an adventure, learns a lesson, wins a victory with that newfound knowledge, and then returns home transformed. The hero’s journey can be boiled down to three essential stages:
The departure. The hero leaves the familiar world behind.
The initiation. The hero learns to navigate the unfamiliar world.
The return. The hero returns to the familiar world.
The classical version of the hero's journey was known as an “epic,” often written in poetic form, like Homer’s Odyssey. Today, the hero’s journey is applied in different types of works, from fantasy to historical fiction. Joseph’s Campbell’s influential work, The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949), analyzes the concept of the hero’s journey, and its various stages."
I've been thinking about what it means to be a hero a lot lately. Burke and I have been watching all of the Marvel films over the last two years and we are almost current. We have watched in chronological order based on the logical storyline not the release date (this is a big detail…ask me how I know)…and it's been…epic. Lots of pausing mid-movie where I ask lots of clarifying questions. Lots of post movie de-construction conversations and I think...I think...I think I understand the complicated world of modern day superheroes. Lots of terrific and terrible characters all with complicated nuanced back stories smooshed together in relationships and connections and conflicts that span both time and space and multiple dimensions. Beautiful. Endless. Epic. I've found it fun and interesting to unpack the hero's journey mythology and look for real world applications in both real people and our fictitious friends from books, TV and film. Lots of powerful application to the real world as well.
Grateful for the real and imaginary heroes that fight for good, defend honor, save the day and lead the people to safety. Grateful for the iconic characters that teach and inspire and instruct. Grateful for the real humans who willingly choose to serve and protect and defend the masses to ensure our average everyday lives and routines carry forward. Grateful to have found this framework and the hope that can be found inside a repeated process of humans…human-ing. Grateful to know that we all take a turn being both the villain and the do-gooder in one story or another….it's all just a matter of time and part of an integrated sacred process. Grateful for the humble departures. Grateful for the life changing initiations. And always grateful for the heartfelt returns. Grateful for the real life twists and turns and the guaranteed transformation that comes with a universe of flawed humans interacting with each other. Grateful for the real and made up flux capacitors, wrinkles in the time space continuum and for the natural aging and growth process connected to maturity. Grateful for technological advances in life saving medicines, for communication strategies and for all things invented by the brilliant boundary breaking Tony Stark's of the world. Grateful for the opportunities that life provides to push pause and then rewind and reflect a bit to see where the journey has journey-ed and for the hope that always always lies ahead.
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-the-heros-journey#1NSljBEzxqOZEInrZJXwqp