Today we're exploring the first stage of being a hero (from Joseph Campbell's book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
1: The hero is introduced in his ordinary world.
Most stories take place in a special world, a world that is new and alien to its hero. If you're going to tell a story about a fish out of his customary element, you first have to create a contrast by showing him in his mundane, ordinary world. In WITNESS you see both the Amish boy and the policeman in their ordinary worlds before they are thrust into alien worlds -- the farmboy into the city, and the city cop into the unfamiliar countryside. In STAR WARS you see Luke Skywalker bored to death as a farmboy before he takes on the universe.
Something to think about:
If you haven't yet done so, it might be good to look at yesterday's post and determine where you are in your hero's journey. If it's already started, think back to where you were, who you were, and what you were doing in that time before your hero's journey started. The progress you've made might surprise you. If you are thinking of, or planning a quest, journey, or something similar, now's the time to look around and make a record of how things stand in this now moment.
We all
-
“We all not only could know everything. We do. We just tell ourselves we
don't to make it all bearable.”
~Neil Gaiman
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1 comments:
Shirley's ordinary world before the "call to adventure"... You know, it occurs to me that I've always had that"call to adventure" going on, I can't think of a time BEFORE it. So that's interesting! And I wonder if that means that I have been stuck in step 2 for a several years!
Several years ago, my ordinary world consisted of me, working at Sprint, deeply depressed and unhappy. At work, I functioned as a pipeline for conversation that ranged from silly and boring to decidedly filthy and desperately cruel. Such was the nature of the work at Relay Missouri. Between calls, I contented myself with keeping up on Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie etc.
At home, I played the sims, made sim stuff for my game, and lived on sugar and 4 hours of sleep.
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