Fools and Heroes

I will always have a cross to wear

But the bolt reminds me I was there

So give me strength

To face this test tonight

-Lene Nystrom

Recently I was reading about the Hero's Journey- kind of an archetypal concept, in which a person, the Hero, (again, an archetypal term) realizes through a series of changes and events their life's purpose, or goes on to do great things. I found this raising more questions than it answered- but here's the general outline of the journey-

First, we have the Hero's normal, conventional life. He grows up, to some greater or lesser extent, maybe has a job, just kind of accepts the morals and laws of his tribe (in whatever context that concept occurs) as true. In other words, just your average member of society. According to the book I was reading, sometimes people spend their whole lives here. Question number one- what do those people look like? And what is their perspective on this Hero? Is a Hero just someone who questions conventional wisdom? And for that matter, how do you define conventional wisdom? I read that this is not simply knee-jerk rebellion, going against the conventional solely because it is conventional. Rather, the Hero has different ideas than what the norm is because of a changing perspective- the individual kind of loses their sense of 'tribalization'- they begin to see a broader or different perspective. This is more a process of losing than gaining, as our Hero loses his cultural or tribal biases- perhaps deepening in understanding? The book goes on to describe a kind of trance state that people fall into- this was a little difficult to wrap your head around, but here goes- what we imagine is the 'real' world is just one set of filtered perceptions- there is often a lot more going on than is realized conventionally.

The next stage is that this Hero is challenged by some manner of crisis- it could be a life event, an existential or philosophical crisis, or even something as simple as meeting a new teacher or hearing of some new teaching. The Hero finds the conventional view of reality just doesn't cut it any more. At this point, the Hero can do one of two things- either accept his challenge, or go back into the trance state, in essence denying his calling (and where, exactly, does this calling come from?) It does, however, show limits and shortcomings of conventional thinking. To deny this is to pretty much miss out on a process of self-evolution. Do what you need to do, either way, I guess.

When the Hero accepts this calling, nebulous though it may be at first, he then undergoes training and discipline, either from a teacher, a path, or even from his own mind. A part of this calling is that the Hero's priorities and life goals change along with the changing of his understanding. This is ultimately an internal change- the Hero takes his newfound learning and understanding to heart.
Then we have the culmination of the Hero's quest- you could say, the Hero finds what he's looking for- you could call it enlightenment, understanding, union with the Absolute (nous in Hermeticism), or perhaps even salvation. The point being, the Hero comes to a point where he knows fully.

After this, the Hero returns and contributes to conventional society- the tribe he left way back when- except now he takes on the role of teacher, sage, or even generally eccentric nutjob. The point is, he returns from his quest and makes himself of service to those who have not yet reached his point of understanding. So then as the teacher, presumably the whole thing begins all over again- a new Hero, a new quest, with this now-enlightened Hero/teacher showing the way.

If this sounds familiar, it's really not a new story. Fairy tales, epics, even history itself is filled with this story in one form or another- hell, even Star Wars followed this format. The Ten Oxherding Pictures that come from the Chinese Zen schools also reflect this. But my question is- doesn't everyone go through this? And is it always that linear? Seems like people could be kind of taking two steps backward and three forward as they go through life. And what about the people who stay back in the tribe? Surely if this potential to be this kind of Hero exists in all of us, doesn't everyone, at some point or another, become a Hero? Maybe I'm having a hard time looking at this from the perspective of any life but my own.

I'm not sure exactly if this matches my own experiences, but a lot of it seems to fit. The world just didn't fit what I had believed about it for a long time. So in that case, I found myself unable to simply gloss over those differences, and had to come to a point of thinking for myself. That might sound egotistical- why should I, among all the people of this world, discover some profound truth? The answer is, actually, I'm not alone in that regard. There are countless other people who've been through the same process. And probably have done quite a bit better with it than I have, too. But ultimately I suppose it's both where you end up and how you get there. It's certainly been a process of learning. I'd guess at this point I'm still wandering around, eyes to the ground, following ox tracks, occasionally falling flat on my face as I trip over a tree root- but knowledge of the ox implies understanding of the goal. Do people really go through life never questioning? I'm not sure quite what to make of that. Either they're really lucky, or not so lucky. Had I simply remained 'back at the village', I would not have had all these bizarre adventures- but would I be happy? Or continually haunted by the suspicion that there was a vast unknown world out there? Actually, that used to be me, starting around junior high or so. Something would strike me, some phrase, symbol, word, or sight, and I would stop and try to connect it to something else- but no luck. I knew there was more to the world than met my immediate understanding, but as of then couldn't quite piece it all together- couldn't find the crack in the eggshell that would undo the whole thing and reveal the mystery. Now, many years later, I'm getting there. I don't know everything yet, (big surprise there) but at least I'm making progress.