The Ordinary (Mundane) World
The hero’s journey starts in the ordinary (mundane) world where the hero is going about everyday existence, oblivious of the adventures to come. Because that’s how
real life works.
In A New Dawn, Luke Skywalker feels trapped by his uncle's plans. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo greets Gandalf, with no sense of the adventure that's coming. In The Hunger Games, Katniss prepares for the reaping. And in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, Harry awakens to his sad life with the Dursleys.
As boring (mundane!) as this stage might feel, no one should underestimate it's significance.
It is here that the hero can learn a critical virtue---Acceptance---that will prepare
the hero for what lies ahead.
real life works.
In A New Dawn, Luke Skywalker feels trapped by his uncle's plans. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo greets Gandalf, with no sense of the adventure that's coming. In The Hunger Games, Katniss prepares for the reaping. And in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, Harry awakens to his sad life with the Dursleys.
As boring (mundane!) as this stage might feel, no one should underestimate it's significance.
It is here that the hero can learn a critical virtue---Acceptance---that will prepare
the hero for what lies ahead.
Examples of the virtue of Acceptance are found in: |
“The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to, and the What is the virtue of Acceptance?
Why does it matter so much? What does it look like in the real world? And how can one practice and eventually acquire this foundational good habit? Start with what it's NOT! -Quitting -Settling -Tolerating “Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.” We typically know the epic, cinematic, glorious moments of the hero's story. But consider the "hidden" years of these three icons of goodness, which were key in the preparation of these great figures.
Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin in the middle of nowhere, lost his mother when he was nine years-old, had very little formal education or money, and was considered lazy by many around him because he preferred reading and writing to the physical labor of farm life. Long before he entered political life, he worked for years as a rail-splitter, a flatboatman, a storekeeper, a surveyor, and a postmaster. Rosa Parks, the hero of the Civil Rights movement in America. She was riding the same bus home, to the same house, from the same job she’d had for years in the same city when bus driver James Blake told her to give her seat to a white man---and she said no. She was 42 years-old, and hadn’t had anything terribly exceptional happen to her before that fateful December day in 1955. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a saint, was believed by her superiors to be too sickly to persevere as a missionary. She was sent to India when she was nineteen but didn’t found her religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, for another 21 years--- when she was 40 years-old! |
Learning from the Chinese Bamboo Tree
In a world that too often over-emphasizes the externals, and seems to prefer ‘fast’ to ‘steady’, understanding the pace of the hero’s journey is crucial to avoid undue frustration and despair.
Are you familiar with the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree? Apparently for four to five years, and sometimes longer, there is no visible growth. The bamboo tree is watered, fertilized, and nurtured and…nothing. Then suddenly, after years of ‘nothing’, the bamboo tree takes off, growing up to ninety feet! During the ‘nothing’ time, the tree was becoming incredibly rooted and prepared for the years that lay ahead---years that would undoubtedly include both further development and difficulties. Without the hidden years where ‘everyday life’ was the norm, this remarkable growth couldn’t have been sustained.
Becoming the hero of your story is something like the growth pattern of a Chinese bamboo tree. The adventure, the excitement, the struggle, the losses, and the victories all lie in the future…sometimes the distant future. But that doesn’t mean the present isn’t meaningful to your journey. It absolutely is. Because the ‘now’, the ‘what is’ of your present world is where the seeds of heroism lie and where valuable lessons can be learned. The ‘now’ is when you water, fertilize and nurture your character…the root system that will feed and sustain your inner hero along the way.
And one more thought about the Chinese bamboo tree as a metaphor for your hero’s journey. If people wandered upon it in all its majesty, fully grown, they wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate the work that had gone in to the 80 or 90 feet of development. My guess is that the tree itself probably forgets what being a little sapling was like after a while.
Are you familiar with the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree? Apparently for four to five years, and sometimes longer, there is no visible growth. The bamboo tree is watered, fertilized, and nurtured and…nothing. Then suddenly, after years of ‘nothing’, the bamboo tree takes off, growing up to ninety feet! During the ‘nothing’ time, the tree was becoming incredibly rooted and prepared for the years that lay ahead---years that would undoubtedly include both further development and difficulties. Without the hidden years where ‘everyday life’ was the norm, this remarkable growth couldn’t have been sustained.
Becoming the hero of your story is something like the growth pattern of a Chinese bamboo tree. The adventure, the excitement, the struggle, the losses, and the victories all lie in the future…sometimes the distant future. But that doesn’t mean the present isn’t meaningful to your journey. It absolutely is. Because the ‘now’, the ‘what is’ of your present world is where the seeds of heroism lie and where valuable lessons can be learned. The ‘now’ is when you water, fertilize and nurture your character…the root system that will feed and sustain your inner hero along the way.
And one more thought about the Chinese bamboo tree as a metaphor for your hero’s journey. If people wandered upon it in all its majesty, fully grown, they wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate the work that had gone in to the 80 or 90 feet of development. My guess is that the tree itself probably forgets what being a little sapling was like after a while.