A Tale of Two Crosses
In reading through Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, I found that mythological stories serve a similar purpose to that of iconography. I had the experience of seeing through to deeper truths and meaning behind the fantastical tales I read. Myths are like icons. They are windows to a new way of understanding, a portal for new discoveries. Campbell writes, “Symbols are only the vehicles of communication.”[1] Rather than the Divine it was the struggles of humanity which I observed. The book held within its pages an invitation to witness and reflect upon the heroic journeys all humans face. Myth is not reality. The icon is only an image. Yet, they offer hope and call us to a deeper truth. Our mythological stories remind us that life itself is the heroic journey.
The Public Cross: Adventure, Crisis, Victory
Monomyth, coined by Joseph Campbell is, “Commonly referred to as “The Hero’s Journey,” it examines the stages of the hero who goes on an adventure, faces a crisis and wins, then returns victorious.”[2] This simple definition, presents the journey in deceptively easy to understand steps. What happens between adventure and victory is where the real story takes shape. The stages of The Hero’s Journey are the scaffolding that organizes the story, providing insight to the purpose and meaning of life’s troublesome experiences.
The journey Matthew Winkler visualized in the TEDEd video is exciting, purposeful, repeatable, and doable.[3] It’s an invitation to a bold new journey that holds the promise of a positive outcome. A little courage to take the first step is all that is required. Winkler’s summation feels more like a welcome adventure that I want and choose to take. It’s a rather cleaned up version. It presents more like a self-help tool to get me where I already want to go. I don’t feel the weight of the journey or the sacrifices that await. I am unaware of the realities ahead. It’s a bit deceptive yet filled with hope.
The journey begins. The challenges unfold. The victories won.
Upon returning home, the hero may be welcomed with accolades and his or her victory praised. The victories become the focal point. The struggles of the journey glossed over. Everything is cleaned up and looks perfect. Sacrifices go unnoticed and the treacherous journey easily dismissed. All suffering is carefully tucked away, hidden from public view. A myth turns the journey into an exciting and pleasing adventure. A fantasy that doesn’t feel quite so real.
The Private Cross: Despair and Hope
I found truth in Campbell’s final sentence. He writes, “And so, every one of us shares the supreme ordeal—carries the cross of the redeemer—not in the bright moments of his tribe’s great victories, but in the silence of his personal despair.”[4] I was waiting for these words. Campbell sees a pattern to the stories of our lives that inspires us to keep moving forward in hope, while recognizing the agony and suffering of the hero’s journey.
If I Judge the heroic journey solely by the outcome and the victories, I will miss the true courage and beauty of the hero’s story. Heroes are not always recognized, named, or celebrated. The heroic journey of real life does not always end in victory. There are heroic journeys no one wants to take. Some heroes never return, not by choice, but by tragedy. Some heroes return unrecognizable with battles scars, both visible and invisible. The hero suffers in silence. Is anyone listening? Does anyone care? How does the hero hold onto hope, onto self?
The hero’s brave departure and his or her triumphant return thrill me. I enter the stories in between these threshold spaces with awe and wonder. If they remain fictionalized safely tucked away in a book, or viewed on a screen, I’m good. When finished, I can walk away strangely touched by what I have encountered, but I don’t have to engage any further, unless I choose to do so. Stories give me hope in an entertaining format. Myths and fairytales are easier to deal with than real life. They provide a distraction from the real-life suffering of my own personal journey. They distract me from noticing the “silent despair” of the heroes all around me. They also carry the powerful invitation to see the pain of life’s heroic journey and to embrace it. To be honest, it’s easier to turn others into superheroes and never come close to their pain or face my own, for that matter. It’s much easier to view the empty cross and the victory it stands for than the crucifix which reminds me of suffering.
I believe we gravitate toward myths and stories with victorious heroes because they give us hope. In real life, the events of what happen between departure and return are not often deeply or authentically shared. Those stories are painful, personal, filled with doubt, and riddled with shame. We love real-life heroes, but don’t want to take in all the painful details. It hurts too much. Heroes live with traumas difficult to witness and excruciating to bear. The hero doesn’t feel like a hero. The hero faced the journey, come what may. The hero is perceived from without more readily than from within.
Sometimes I don’t want to sit with my stories. They don’t feel heroic. My stories feel more like a mess, a jumble of confusion, full of missteps, and a thousand unanswered questions. I need the truth of resurrection and the hope of a final triumph in which we all return home victorious, every tear wiped away.[5] In the meantime, stories of heroic suffering are precious and need to be told. I want to hear those stories and behold the hero within us all.
[1] Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, (Novato, CA: New World Library, 1949), 203.
[2] “The Monomyth (The Hero’s Journey): Home” Accessed January 22, 2023. https://libguides.gvsu.edu/c.php?g=948085&p=6836194
[3] Matthew Winkler. “What Makes a Hero?” 2019, video, https://libguides.gvsu.edu/c.php?g=948085&p=6836194
[4] Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Face, 337.
[5] Revelation 21:4
About the Author
Jenny Dooley
Jenny served as a missionary in Southeast Asia for 28 years. She currently resides in Gig Harbor, Washington, where she works as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Spiritual Director in private practice with her husband, Eric. Jenny loves to listen and behold the image of God in others. She enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time with her family which include 5 amazing adult children, 3 awesome sons-in-law, a beautiful daughter-in-law, and 8 delightful grandchildren.19 responses to “A Tale of Two Crosses”
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Wow, Jenny, you brought together a couple of thoughts that were floating around in the back of my mind but I hadn’t been able to articulate them. It’s true that we are drawn to heroic stories. And yet, like you, when I look around I see so many un-heros, so much suffering and people bumbling along, myself included. You put it beautifully: “a jumble of confusion, full of missteps, and a thousand unanswered questions.” Yep, that’s me, and some days that feels very discouraging. But as you remind us, the ultimate victory is in Jesus and he will wipe away every tear. Thank you for speaking truth that I needed to hear.
Hi Kim,
Thank you for responding to my post. I do think the “un-hero” is the real hero in disguise. Maybe the disguise is the proof. The confusion, missteps, questions and (I am talking about myself here) self-doubts when wrestled with are those threshold spaces in which we encounter Jesus more fully. I ‘m not sure I like the hero language, but I think it is in those spaces our true-self emerges and the image and power of God is revealed. I keep Philippians 3:10, James 1:2-4, and 2 Corinthians 4:17 in my heart when I feel discouraged. You are doing heroic things everyday!
I was wondering if you might comment as a former missionary. I find that Campbells monomyth is really Western centered. While serving in Eastern Europe, I found the story lines VERY different. The protagonist usually dies at the end. One could argue that this could be part of Post communism depression (which many countries, including Hungary, are so proud of).
Happily ever after seems to a Disney concept that rarely touches real people. It is also misleading.
My concern is that Campbell has an impact on story and movie writers in America. These stories paint a picture of reality that our children grow up to imagine to be reality in the USA. Sigh….where am going with this…don’t know…thanks for your comments…Shalom…Russ
Hi Russell,
It does seem to be a particularly or a peculiarly American/western perspective to always have a happy or victorious ending. I wonder if we are being conditioned to expect only happy endings and care free lives. We are easily troubled when we don’t get what we are expecting from life. There is a deep discouragement and hopelessness that comes with not learning how to deal with disappointments and unexpected outcomes. That in and of itself is an heroic journey!
As much as I like a happy ending, I think we need both types of myths and story lines. Sad endings don’t sell books or movie tickets. Life is not a fairy tale and we will not get everything we hope and dream for out of it. Some times denial masquerades as faith.
I also wonder about the western fear of death, the denial of suffering, the pursuit of youth, the “anti-aging” terminology, and the impact of the prosperity gospel message on our need for happy endings. Maybe we just don’t want to face our mortality.
In Asia, one major difference I noticed was how different people groups and cultures deal with death. After a loved one dies, families generally keep the body in their home for a few days until the time of burial, tend to the body themselves, sit with the body overnight, and bury the body of their loved ones themselves. Maybe other cultures are more in tune and less in denial about the reality of human suffering and death.
Jenny, this is beautifully stated, “The book held within its pages an invitation to witness and reflect upon the heroic journeys all humans face. Myth is not reality. The icon is only an image. Yet, they offer hope and call us to a deeper truth. Our mythological stories remind us that life itself is the heroic journey.”, you summed it up beautifully. We tend to look for the hero in big gestures and events…I appreciate the redirection.
Jonita,
Thank you for your kind words. I witnessed the hero in you through your blog post. What you wrote makes a difference and calls us all to new understanding, lament, and action. Thank you for that! What small gestures are you noticing that are revealing the hidden hero in yourself and others?
Nicely written, Jenny. Thanks for your thoughtful reflection. Calling out this quote: “They provide a distraction from the real-life suffering of my own personal journey. They distract me from noticing the ‘silent despair’ of the heroes all around me.” Is part of the appeal of delving into fictional stories, that there IS an ending, while our stories remain unfinished?
Absolutely, I think stories with a resolved ending give us hope. As much as I enjoy fictional stories developed along the lines Campbell describes, I enjoy biographies and autobiographies more. They are windows in to the full life of a real human being. I resonate with the human struggle, the failures, and the victories that make up the whole journey and transform a person over time. We live in the uncertain and unfinished spaces of life. I wonder when the stories of our lives are revealed if many of the unfinished parts and losses might be victories after all. Our perspective is so limited but God’s is not.
Thank you for again writing with such authenticity. You are right. The “hero’s journey does not always end in victory. There are heroic journeys no one wants to take. Some heroes never return, not by choice, but by tragedy.” Trusting God with the bigger picture when one is ravaged by disappointment and loss tries the soul to its very core…
Hi Esther,
I think it is important to note that victories in this life are not the biggest or best indication of hero. Kind of like mining for gold, I want to notice the heroic journeys and validate the cost and sacrifices that are made when all seems hopeless or lost. I have had more than a few journeys that did not turn out the way I had hoped. My prayer was, “God, please make this hard thing you are asking me to do all worth it.” The victory didn’t always come. I suspect the victory is a hidden, internal, and eternal. I need reminders of that from time to time.
Jenny…at the end of your post you mention one of the most profound heroic journeys I get to witness as a Pastor: heroic suffering, or people courageously (faith) facing their final ‘earthly threshold’ (death) with faith, hope, and love. From the outside it looks like total defeat, but it is the most profound, strong, courageous, beautiful moments I have ever witnessed! It seems that whether we view ourselves as heroes or not…we are all called at some point to go on this heroic journey in trusting dependance upon our ultimate hero who has defeated sin and death.
Scott,
Most of my heroes have made that journey. Before I wrote the blog I took a beautiful Sunday drive out to the country cemetery where four generations of my family are buried. I find it a threshold place of hope. I thought of the brave journey of my mother. The faith, hope, and love I witnessed in her has stayed with me these 34 years since she passed away following a long battle with cancer. All I could think about was how she had more faith and courage than anyone I knew and graciously braved a journey I will one day encounter. Thank you for being a loving presence to those facing that eternal threshold.
Yes, thanks for confirming that this seemed very “western.” Which doesn’t make it a bad thing, but I wondered.
Jenny, YES! Thank you for acknowledging this part of the heroes journey! The agony and despair. We do all of ourselves a major disservice when we ignore or privatize our suffering. I think I encounter this part of everyones journey working in the spiritual realm of the dying process. We fail to practice how to share our burdens out of fear of feeling weak. I can’t tell you how many times I hear my colleagues, friends or clients apologize for crying, as if this is the weakest way they can respond to their agony and suffering. We often skip to the resurrection and forget Good Friday! Thank you Jenny for bringing light and normalcy to the suffering and agony of a heroes journey!
Jana,
Thank you for responding to my post and for the wonderful work you do with those who are suffering. I see such tremendous transformational growth when we allow others to tell their stories of suffering and when we risk to tell our own. In the telling, we begin to see ourselves and our journeys in a different and more empowered light. We begin to see we are not alone and recognize suffering as part of our journey and not the whole of it. It is courageous work for sure!
You are right when you say that some heroes are unknown and unrecognized. Indeed, some heroes “choose” to fight on a quiet path, far from the noise and attribute. But that doesn’t mean they lack meaning. On the contrary, their lives have meaning and are beneficial to others. I am deeply impressed by the life story you told me when we met in Cape Town. A story of ministry in several Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, with your husband and children. You went on a divine mission, crossing the borders of countries, cultures, and religions, facing risks that threatened you and your family. In my opinion, that’s a heroism story that is rarely appreciated. Somehow, you are a hero for the people you serve, Jenny!
Thank you Dinka, for your kind words and your listening ear in Cape Town. I enjoyed hearing about your journey as well. I would love to hear more about East Kalimantan. I have never been there. I love how you put it that the hero’s journey is a “quiet path.” Just because the hero is seen or doesn’t make a lot of noise doesn’t mean they aren’t a hero.
“To be honest, it’s easier to turn others into superheroes and never come close to their pain or face my own, for that matter.” This is spot on Jenny, I wrestle with his myself. It reminds me of what one of the freedom fighters who fought along Desmond Tutu said in Capetown, “Desmond is easy to admire, but let him inspire you to action.” I think it’s natural for us to idolize hero’s and stay familiar and comfortable when they can instead inspire us to take our own journeys.
Adam,
Thank for commenting on my post. I love the point you made that in admiring the hero we are called to action. I am asking myself the following questions: Who is that hero in my life? Am I inspiring anyone to action?