Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. ~ Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell speaks about writing in Reflections on the Art of Living. He says, “get the writing out first. Forget the critic and just write. Afterward, you can bring in the critical factor and prune. . . . Do not think about the negative side. There will be negatives that are going to come down, but you have to hold the door open if you are going to do anything that has not been done before. You have to suspend all criticism to do your work. In writing you have to do this all the time in order to get a sentence out. Suspending criticism is killing the dragon. They’ll shalt kill him. P. 269
Note: It’s true in writing. It’s true in all aspects of our lives. The biggest problem I had in working with students writing their dissertation was to help them move beyond thinking what they were going to write had to be perfect. Once they slayed that dragon, their writing flowed. If we think of the criticisms we’ll receive whether it’s making dinner, posting a blog, or choosing a personal adventure, we’ll never get it done the way we could do it if we didn’t think about what others would think. Slay the dragons in your life. You’ll feel a lot better.
Joseph Campbell speaks about choosing a profession in Reflections on the Art of Living. He says, “There are two approaches to choosing a profession. One is to study the statistics on the number of jobs that are going to be available in this other category in the next 10 years and base your life on that. That’s following the rim of the wheel. The other is to ask yourself, “What do I want to do?” If you do that, then you are up against your decision. But if you say, “I am going to do what I want to do,” and if you stay with it, then something will happen. You may not have a job, but you will have a life, and it will be interesting. P.266
Note: I know excellent musicians who have not made the big splash, but they’ve followed their heart and kept playing music. Some play on the street with a jar for donations, some take any kind of gig they can get because it’s all about the music and their relationship to it. They take any job they can get to pay the rent and eat. They’re at their happiest when they are playing music, they have a life. Have you ever asked yourself “What do I want to do? Perhaps this is a good time to take the first step in asking that question and maybe finding the life you seek.
Joseph Campbell speaks of the creative act in Reflections on the Art of Living. He says, “The creative act is not hanging on, but yielding to new creative movements. Think, for instance, if someone is studying the piano. There is nothing worse than having somebody in the neighborhood, studying the piano, practicing their exercises. There is nothing at all beautiful about them. Their function is to give you facility, and presently there comes a point when you have the facility, It happens automatically, and you do not have to think this is true for everything. The one who attempts to be an artist and has not learned the craft is never going to be an artist. P. 262
Note: I read a book where the author says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. That’s why there are so few great ones. There is the joke where a reporter asks a virtuoso how they got to Carnegie Hall. The virtuoso replies, “practice, practice, practice.” It’s true in all areas of life. Do you want to be a good friend, parent, husband, or wife? Practice, practice, practice. And, one day it will happen, and you will not even realize it is happening,
Joseph Campbell speaks of perfection in Reflections on the Art of Living. He says, “A human being in action cannot represent perfection. You always represent one side of a duality that is itself perfection. The moment you take action, you are imperfect. You have decided to act that way instead of that other way. That’s why people think they are perfect and so ridiculous. They’re in a bad position with respect to themselves. P 135
Note: People who believe they are perfect scare me. They have the right answers to everything. There’s no room for discourse. Yet, I find perfectionists to be the unhappiest of all people I meet. They are always striving for something that is beyond their grasp. When we accept ourselves and others as imperfect beings, we can become more compassionate to ourselves and each other.
Joseph Campbell speaks of a shared plane of consciousness in Reflections on the Art of Living. He says, “I am more and more convinced that there is a plane of consciousness that we are all sharing, and that the brain is a limiting machine that pulls it in. . . . I’ve had such experiences on enough occasions to attest to that; meeting somebody, having i kind of “click,” and knowing that you are going to do something important together that will be a major feature in your lives. I mean, when you meet people who are going to be a deep significance in your life, knowing that it’s going to happen is somehow right there in the first meeting. It’s a very mysterious business. P.132
Note: I’ve had similar experiences. This week the name of a workout buddy, Brad popped into my mind. I hadn’t seen Brad at the gym in more than a year. I had this feeling I’d see him this week. Did he show up at the gym? No. Today I went on a nature trail hike and was out a good distance when who did I see coming up the trail toward me but Brad. Some may say that was a coincidence. I think our meetup was in the realm of the shared plane of consciousness. . Yes, it’s mysterious business as Campbell says, but it also fills me with awe and wonder.
Joseph Campbell speaks of the importance of ritual when sitting down to eat in Reflections on the Art of Living. He says, “Ritual introduces you to the meaning of what’s going on. Saying grace before meals lets you know that you’re about to eat something that was once alive. When eating a meal, realize what you were doing. Hunting peoples thank the animals for having giving itself. They feel gratitude. The main ritual of mature, hunting tribes, like those of the Americas, were addressed to the animal. On the northwest coast, the principal rites were when the first wave of salmon came in, and they were intended to than the salmon. The life of the animal that you’ve taken is given back when you recognize what you’ve done. And so, sitting down to eat, realize what you are doing: you are eating a life that has been given so that you might live. P. 90
Note: The ritual of grace before meals or some form of expression of gratitude for what we are about to eat seems to me to be important. We are not entitled to the food, it is all a gift. Something died to feed us whether it is an animal, fish, or plant. Human beings other than us worked so we could eat. There is a line of people who made our meal possible from the grocery to the farmer or rancher. Yes, a heartfelt THANK YOU for this food is a worthy ritual.
Joseph Campbell says in Reflections on the Art of Living in speaking of the heroes journey, “When one thinks of some reason for not going, or has fear, and remains in society, because it safe, the results are radically different from what happens when one follows a call. If you refuse to go, then you are someone else’s servant. When this refusal of the call happens, there is a kind of drying up, a sense of life lost. Everything in you knows that are required adventure has been refused. Anxiety build up. What you have refused to experience in a positive way, you will experience in a negative way. P 78
Note: When we refuse the call to go on the journey, we make excuses. We rationalize why it is safer not to go then to go. I have had colleagues who had wonderful opportunities where they could have made a big difference who refused to answer their call because they were afraid. They made elaborate excuses and they said, “I could have, I would have, but they didn’t. They lost their great adventure in that moment. Don’t fear the adventure.
Joseph Campbell says in Reflections on the Art of Living, “The heroes journey always begins with the call. One way or another, a guide must come to say, “Look, you’re in Sleepy Land. Wake. Come on a trip. There is a whole aspect of your consciousness, you’re being, that’s not been touched. So, you’re at home here? Well, there’s not enough of you there” And so it starts.
Note: I think at some point we’re all called to “the hero’s journey.” It begins if we hear the call. The call usually comes when it takes us to a place we don’t want to go. It takes us to a place where we are uncomfortable and challenged. If we answer the hero’s call, we will discover our true destiny through the multiple tests we’ll encounter. If we fail to answer the hero’s call, we’ll languish always wondering “what if.”
Joseph Campbell says in Reflections on the Art of Living, “A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation: as you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.” P. 26
Note: When I was teaching at the University, I taught a course on change. I learned a lot about change by teaching about it. I learned I could only change myself and no one else. I also learned that the most difficult step to take in making a change is the first one. Once it is taken everything falls into place. Don’t be afraid. Listen to the wisdom of the Native Americans. The great chasm is not as wide as you think, take the first step and the rest will fall into place.
