Found it!
Joseph Campbell said that every life is miraculous, and as I stare down my 44th birthday and reflect on the events that comprise the four decades of my memory, I whole-heartedly agree. Being born is a miracle in itself, but surviving over forty years more, is a miracle to the tenth power.
Campbell's genius was his ability to explain the "Power of Myth". Defined not as a 'story or legend that is not completely true', but as a tale, retold across generations, that carries within it the accumulated learned truths of human existence.
In addition to being the fundamental building blocks of all major, and minor, religions, Myth is at once both universal and intensely personal. It simultaneously reveals how unique each life is, as it demonstrates how we are all alike.
He said that every person's life is a "heroic journey" in which the individual plays the central role. And that in order to become the "hero", one must determine their own "bliss" and act accordingly.
The journey is comprised of all sorts of seeming triumphs and disasters, through which the hero is forged, by enduring and ultimately prevailing, regardless of the whether the hero's intent was realized or thwarted.
The "Bliss" was to be found deep within oneself, and then it becomes the reward for being what you want to be and doing what you truly want to do. And perhaps most important, is the fact that it is not an easy thing to do, and that it takes a lot of courage to actually live the way one most deeply desires to. But in doing so, the rewards of living, as opposed to merely existing, are multiplied one-hundred fold.
I have suspected that Campbell was onto something special for over twenty years and now I know, as surely as one can "know" anything, that he was right. For as I find myself edging ever closer to actually doing the few things that to me are truly important, I see more and more reflections of the person I've always wanted to be.
And as a consequence, life has become intensely precious and yet, serene.
Just like Joseph Campbell said it would.
stephenhsmith
29Aug2006
