“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
~ Joseph Campbell from The Power of Myth
Joseph Campbell. He’s amazing. In my spiritual family tree, I call him “Grandpa Joe.” (Right below Great-Grandpa Abe (Maslow). :)
Have you ever watched the DVDs of him chatting with Bill Moyers? He just *radiates* enthusiasm and bliss and wisdom and passion for life and for his work. Really inspiring. That interview series was called The Power of Myth and was filmed a short time before Campbell passed away in 1987.
In total, they filmed 24 (!!!) hours of discussion between Campbell and Moyers (who does a phenomenal job leading the interview). Only 6 magical hours wound up on the DVDs and this book, The Power of Myth, features some of the wisdom that wasn’t captured in the original DVDs. Really cool.
For those not yet familiar with Grandpa Joe, he was a mythology guru (mentored George Lucas—who based his Star Wars empire in large part on Campbell’s mythology studies) who coined the phrases “Follow your bliss” and “The hero’s journey.”
Seeing that it’s such a *huge* part of Campbell’s work (check out my Note on A Joseph Campbell Companion for even more Big Ideas, btw), let’s kick this Note off with a look at where Campbell came up the idea of “Following our bliss!” Then, we’ll look at some Big Ideas on how to actually do it! (Starting NOW! :)
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