Dying Wiser #5
Wisdom Through Literature, Eldering Through Dad: “Joseph Campbell”
A video as our lead into wisdom from a True Elder.
Please watch and enjoy…and ponder deeply, just as it is meant to be experienced. There is MUCH to be applied about my Dad in these 4 minutes, 46 seconds. There is MUCH to be applied about our own lives—like all good Eldering. All that follows will make better sense if you start with the video clip:
“What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light, or am I the light in which the bulb is a vehicle?” ~ Joseph Campbell
How’s THAT for Eldering!!! Where are we hearing that nowadays? When you experience Eldering like that, doesn’t your Soul clamor for more?
A bit of a disclaimer: I appreciate and resonate strongly with the moniker “old white guy” and a bias that exists in that space when we look for wisdom. Even more-so: “dead old white guy!” (Sadly, Campbell died the year before this documentary was completed in post production and nationally broadcast). But the moniker doesn’t apply to Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell lives at the level of Soul—a Universal plane of existence where we also would find Souls like Maya Angelou, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, MLK Jr., Mother Teresa, Mary Oliver, Joy Harjo, Leo Tolstoy, Black Elk, Chief Joseph, and Nelson Mandela.
Joseph Campbell is a True, Nationally-Treasured, Elder. Or at least he was.
He should still be.
His is a grand example of what our society does to Elders nowadays as I fear generations coming up, behind me, have no idea who Joseph Campbell was. They get forgotten. And this, in a nutshell, is one reason we are in the place we find ourselves right now. No matter where you are, what you do, or how you spend your time, without Elders and Eldering like this in our lives, we risk devolving as humans (would you agree we have ample evidence of this now?). Without stories and storytellers like Joseph Campbell, we do not stand a chance of reaching our highest potential. This is one of the consequences of what Stephen Jenkinson means when he says “Elders are humanity’s sentinel species.” More on that in a later post.
Campbell’s Eldering in the clip above provides an insight, as do “his myths,” of how to enter into one’s dying and ultimate death, “through the dark gate,” with equanimity. (I loved that he called them “his myths.” Did you catch that? We can read the same myth story, but they become “our own” when the myth comes alive within our unique bodies, circumstances, and souls).
Dad could have used more myths in his life. Or certainly, a Joseph Campbell.
Growing up, I wasn’t a reader of mythology. Remember, we didn’t have books in the house growing up and neither mom, nor Dad, were ever models of reading, let alone exemplary models (I intentionally exclude here mom’s go-to literature that she always kept in a little rack by the toilet (in retrospect, the RIGHT place for it all): the “Enquirer,” “The Star,” and “Soap Opera Digest.” YUCK! Nope, those don’t count…at all!).
“We read nonfiction for facts; we read fiction (mythology) for Truth.” Whereas I am predominantly a reader of non-fiction, I am, now, a better student of story and of myth. And through Dad, I am starting to envision how “The Hero’s Journey” has played out through the life of one humble farmer. It is both humbling and awe-inspiring.
It’s fascinating to look at Joseph Campbell through my Dad lens.
The Hero’s Journey
In 1988, a transcendent documentary was produced by the Public Broadcasting Service (your local PBS stations!). A six-part series involving a discussion between two men: Bill Moyer and Joseph Campbell. How’s THAT for riveting television! The clip above is a brief segment from that program. Two men simply talking to each other about “The Power of Myth.” But that’s the point: It WAS riveting and transcendent. It was this documentary that put Joseph Campbell on the world-wide map in such a large way. And as a result, gave us the Elder that he was, even up to the current day if we wanted, who provides, still, warm illumination on the Journey helping us to navigate life. Again, THIS is what Elders uniquely do. And Joseph Campbell was unique in his own storytelling and interpretation and teaching. He is unique in his Eldering.
One of Campbell’s main points of emphasis, and even Eldering life advice to his students, was “follow your bliss.”
[Pretty great life advice that!]
From Campbell:
“Follow your bliss. Find where it is, and don't be afraid to follow it.”
"...if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."
"Our life evokes our character. You find out more about yourself as you go on. That's why it's good to be able to put yourself in situations that will evoke your higher nature rather than your lower."
Dad’s Eldering 101:
In farming, Dad followed his bliss. No doubt. Farming was who he was—his true nature. Have you heard the saying: “If you choose to do something you love, you will never work a day in your life”? THAT was Dad. He never worked a day in his life on the farm and I find that simply incredible and inspirational. And farming was HARD WORK! Every day I was in the field, I worked! (Catching my drift there? In other words, it wasn’t MY bliss! Heck, I don’t even drink beer!).
I think that is perhaps Dad’s greatest Eldering lesson—even though he couldn’t, he might say it this way though: “Look, just like Joseph Campbell, I told you to follow your bliss. I just didn’t use words to say it. I told you through the example I lived every single day of farm life. Do as I did, follow your bliss. You will never regret it.” And if a tractor is involved, all the better!
That life of farming “evoked” Dad’s character. You know, if you know my dad personally or have kept up in your reading of these posts, who my dad was as a farmer and who he was as a human; how he was as a model of humanness; how he exemplified integrity and dedication; and how he personified humility and grace. These qualities weren’t things Dad had to cultivate in his life as he cultivated his hops. These were the effortless outcomes of a life lived in bliss.
But I’ve discovered yet another insight into Dad’s current humanity and way of being as that blissful path has had to be abandoned because his mind and body can no longer walk the path of farming. Imagine what it would/(will?) be like for you if/(when?) you have your own bliss taken away from you IF you have nothing else to fill the void. You know from me already that this is a poignant Eldering lesson from Dad right now, maybe his second most important; in regards to that, he might say to you, if he could:
“Please have another bliss in the on-deck circle for when you can no longer step up to the plate of your current bliss. What I’m going through right now isn’t fun. This is hard work. Keep cultivating your bliss so that it becomes, for you, a never-ending source of nourishment. Mine ended; yours doesn’t have to.”
Dad’s example of Eldering in this regard exemplifies one life, his life, lived on both ends of Campbell’s continuum: one a life of bliss; the other an aimless void. This isn’t to say Dad doesn’t still experience happiness—he does. Dad simply had nothing in his on-deck circle; no other source of bliss nor capacity to cultivate another source of bliss, in reserve. No Elder taught him the necessity of doing so in preparation for this phase of his life as he approaches his “dark gate.” He’s living the consequences of that lack right now—no meaningful pursuits, hobbies, pastimes (other than TV—he has no idea how to “surf” the internet), no reading life…. So we are trying to serve in that capacity and fill that void (to a degree, it’s working)—and in so doing, selfishly, I’m discovering something unanticipated:
A Personal side note: As I entered along side Dad on his Journey Home, I didn’t expect that this would become a blissful journey for me. But Joseph Campbell, AND Dad, are Eldering me (us?) to lift that clouded veil and show me that this level of service, to one man, amidst a loving family and support (and love) from Kristin (and Sammy), is pointing me now to a new form of bliss. And I didn’t see that coming. Even though the Journey isn’t easy (Campbell would say “of course not: like anyone’s journey, because it is a Hero’s Journey, it will be hard. That’s what being human means. And that’s what makes it heroic.”), at it’s foundation, it is blissful. I’m NOT a hero in the manner society defines the term—I’m not doing any thing special that hasn’t been done by generations past, and even among members of my own extended family, or friend cohort (Anam Cara’s—fellow soul friends), who have learned what it means to care for another like this, in such an intimate and personal way. I see all you out there. Campbell defines “The Hero’s Journey” differently from society. I’ve simply joined a sacred fellowship grounded firmly in compassion, dedication, and service—for an audience of one. I know many, many of you, who are reading these words right now, resonate with this and know exactly what I mean. That’s never been lost on me as I’ve written all these posts.
And THAT would be Campbell’s point and Eldering in a nutshell:
“The Hero’s Journey” is our own individual, yet shared journey. Individual because we are each on our own unique path that cannot be walked by anyone else; but shared because we are not, ever, alone on that path.
Because humans are story-tellers, beings who makes best sense of the world through stories, Campbell personified, through his Eldering, the power that myth serves to explain this wondrous thing called humanity. From the moment the first group of hominids gathered around a fire, and when that first story teller stood up and said to the others: “Hey, listen to this. You’re gonna love this. I have something I want to share with you all.”, we’ve relied on our ability to create and understand “Story” in order to understand ourselves more fully.
Dad never wrote anything down to capture the stories from his life. He never kept a journal (what a read THAT would have been!), and he never gathered us around any fire to captivate us with stories—that wasn’t who Dad was. You know he didn’t and doesn’t Elder like that. He simply lived his Hero’s Journey daily by rising before the sun, being out among the fields, and living his bliss leaving it up to us to notice and note. I guess this blog is serving as a route for HIS story-telling through a proxy—someone who is serving in the role of Dad’s interpreter and translator. THAT is my honor…
…and my bliss.
Yet another gift, an Eldering, Dad has given to me. It’s NOT easy; Joseph Campbell didn’t say a life of, or following one’s, bliss is all “rainbows, unicorns, and blissed-out euphoria.” Campbell’s “bliss” is one of authenticity, purpose, and full and passionate engagement with something larger than one’s self. No, serving Dad in this capacity is not easy. But, it’s also not work.
I’m the lucky one.
Dad lived a privileged life because he could only be who he was: a genuine, authentic, grounded, real, humble, introspective, dignified, passionate, hard-working farmer…
…following his bliss.
Yep, that’s who he was.
T plus 85 days…and counting. Dad is still on his Hero’s Journey y’all. More chapters still to write.
BTW: If this post has you curious about Joseph Campbell: