TofJO IP 1.1

 

Lesson 1, Part 1 - The Hero's Adventure

Storytelling is a large part of my life. As a writer I have studied Joseph Campbell and his Hero’s Journey a little as a tool to help structure my novel. I find the idea of applying to my real life to be interesting, I can see how we go through the cycle of the hero's journey in repeat as we travel the the adventure that is our lives. Campbell says “everything begins with a story” and is that not true of all of us as well? I have long thought of my life in the terms of a book or series thereof, each time of my life a chapter or book. I am the hero of my story, but the ally, mentor, love interest, side character, or even villain of other people's books and likewise others play out those roles in mine. He talks about how the adventure the hero is given is the one he is ready for, I am not sure if that is always true in real life, I think there are time the world throws things at us that we have no way of dealing with it. But I guess then it is how we choice to respond in those situation that show who we are. Like the hero of stories we have our failure and our successes.

He talks about the death and resurrection symbolizing the transition between being a child and becoming an adult. I think we go through many of these transition in our lives, some more sparkly than others. I know people who think of their past selves as separate people from themselves, they feel noticeable changes, transition between times of their lives and stop identifying with their past selves, in essences, their old selves died and a new them took its place. I personally have never felt that way about my younger self, I feel like the seam person as as ten year old self, a bigger, broader, self spiritually and intellectually, but still the same person. While I feel like I am a puzzle with more pieces being added to a whole, it seams they feel like it is more of a phoenix transformation, they go up in flames and a new them rises from the ashes.