While there have been many wonderful changes in my life over the past couple of weeks, there is no time to be complacent. I have been stalled in writing my next piece as I have been trying to find the perfect topic. I have searched my mental rolladex and decided to avoid writing this time around about PS3 games, the Mets first days at camp, my love for progress, and last but not least my heart, my fiancee.
I am in the process of reading Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces. The idea of the hero has always fascinated me, and I know I am not the only one. I think all of us dream of being the one, the person who can transcend much of what is life and become victorious at whatever we put our heart into. We are all drawn to these stories which have been written and spoken from the beginning of time. Whether it be Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Luke Skywalker, Batman, or even Jesus, these are figures that transcend time because the concept transcends time. No matter the packaging, the hero remains in the same form.
I am not here to give a history lesson on the Hero and the different stages of the rites of passage. I would like to briefly speak about the importance of the hero. The idea that life is but a series of opposites can be seen in most religions, maybe most notably in the form of the Chinese Yin and Yang. Good and bad, comed and tradegy, truth and false, love and hate. They say there is a thin line between love and hate, and that stands true for all of these opposites. It is that thin line that all of us humans are always balancing. There is rarely incidents that can be labeled "black and white" and most seem to turn out in that "grey" area.
So what is the (over-simplified) version of the difference between the hero and the rest of us? Joseph Campbell writes that the difference comes at the point when the hero transcends these opposites and acquires true insight. Most of us cannot see beyond our own egocentrism. For example, Our sense of nationalism blinds our interpretation of moral right and wrong. We believe that our country (most of the time) is morally right, while the other side is always wrong. The hero has been touched by the supreme being (whatever that is for you) and has a true sense of insight.
Campbell further explains that at this point the hero understands all that there is to know, and realizes that it was always within (him/her). This is a point that I first understood coming from Mr. Nasir Jones in the Street Dreams Remix song. Nas raps, "and the only thing I found incredible, Everything I tried to learn see, I already knew". The idea that our souls, being a part of the whole of everything must spend a lifetime attempting to "re-learn" the meaning of everything.
The hero is what many of us aspire to be. while some of us just float through the days trying to get by and stay blinded, the rest of us desire to know more, and be more. The idea of the hero is a template for how we would like to live our lives, striving to always be better and to leave the most positive mark on people, and this world possible.
