"THE PRIVILEGE OF A LIFETIME IS BEING WHO YOU ARE"

This quote is by Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), the world's foremost expert on mythology.  I ran across the quote and remembered studying him, Carl Jung and other heavy-duty thinkers in university.  A quotation relevant enough to today's interests, that Joseph Campbell's ideas seemed worth reviewing.   The chat between him and Bill Moyers (b.1934), journalist and White House Press Secretary, in the 6-part PBS series from 1988, "The Power of Myth," is binge-worthy.  The quotation about being who we are triggered my desire to give Campbell a re-look.  His ideas spark thoughts.  See what you think.   

Whitewater Falls, Cashiers, NC

First, Campbell's thinking about God.  He says "God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought."  Hmmm. . . . I would delete one phrase and say, yes, "God is a mystery that transcends all human categories of thought."  But not a metaphor.  For Christians, God's Son helps us understand the mystery.  Someone fully human and fully divine who lived in an historical time and an historical place--not a metaphor. I pray to Him daily. "Thank you God" in gratitude or "Help me Lord" in need.   


So that's who I am.  And it is a privilege to be who we are, isn't it?  "No one in the world was ever you before, with your particular gifts and abilities and possibilities."  Also a Joseph Campbell quote, though not unique to him.  Think of the variations on "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."  Campbell says that "myths are the ongoing search for the experience of life." The experience, not the meaning. I like this. The emphasis on the here and now, not some future eternity. Our experience is the meaning, he says. We don't have to look for meaning in the future, whether here or hereafter. I may believe in eternal life, but I don't live there! So consistent with not wasting our hours and days, isn't it?  With mindfulness.

The first function of mythology is "To evoke in the individual a sense of grateful, affirmative awe before the monstrous mystery that is existence."  I must say that many days I feel like that, especially when I am out in nature as we were this week in the mountains of North Carolina.  Campbell calls the teachings of Muhammad, the wisdom of the Buddha and the parables of Christ all mythologies, vital stories that help us look for the truth within ourselves through the guidance of people, real or not, who have gone through similar trials. (Post "Easter is about Dying and Rising; So is Life," 4/5/2018). So I feel comfortable asking my transcendent God for help and guidance. Someone else prays five times daily facing Kaaba, the House of God at Mecca.  Someone else sits in contemplation.  Each of us has a way. 

Illustration by Ruby Taylor

I read that everything Joseph Campbell writes is an explanation of how ancient and modern myths and religions try to reconcile the harsh reality of the world we live in with the transcendent beauty of our impermanent existence.  The difference between the world's beauty and the especially harsh reality of life in America today has certainly been on my mind lately (Post "Another Week of Shootings," 8/19/2019). It's not a small discordance and worthy of deep thinking.

My first acquaintance with Joseph Campbell's writing was his idea of "following bliss," that is to discover when we are happy--not excited, not thrilled, not 'on top of the world,' but deeply happy.  Content many of us would say.  At peace.  At one with ourselves and the universe.  For others it may be different, but when I am in that place God is always there. Maybe just lurking, but somehow a part of my deep contentment (well, to be honest, my husband is often there too, or a grandchild or two).

I also like Joseph Campbell's idea of creative incubation.  And that the first law of life is that we are all one.  That the psychic unity of humankind is poetically expressed through mythology.  And I like what he says about marriage:  "Marriage is not a love affair."  I would say not only a love affair. "A love affair has to do with immediate personal satisfaction.  Marriage is an ordeal; it means yielding, time and again.  That's why it's a sacrament.  You give up your personal simplicity to participate in a relationship.  And when you're giving, you're not giving to the other person; you're giving to the relationship."  Reminds me of that song from "The Music Man" where Marian the Librarian says about her dream man, "And I would like him to be, more interested in me, than he is in himself.  And more interested in us than in me." Do you know the song? Are you hearing it if you do?


I've enjoyed thinking about all this, challenging my brain to sort it out.  We like doing that sort of thing, don't we?  Our minds aren't just for those intrusive thoughts we want to banish or for work or home chores.  They should be free to wander, ponder and wonder. That's one of the privileges of the lifetime of being who we are.  
                                                                      Nina Naomi