Hi, My name is Hero and I am a….
What a fascinating way to reflect on our personal life journey through the eyes of mythology and the journey of the hero (or the monomyth). I’ve never been into mythology, maybe because I don’t think I really understood it. But from the get-go, on the first page of the forward, it states, “Campbell was fascinated with the ways in which all myths told what he called “the one great story of mankind.”[1] I guess if I looked at it that way, I might have been more inclined to pay more attention to it.
If I looked at this book through the lens of my project (and some bullet points from ChatGPT), here is what I would come up with. When someone is at rock bottom and done with the craziness of whatever drink/drug/or… of choice, they make a decision to change the way they are doing life. That would be the Call to Adventure – disrupting how they have lived and entering the challenging world of recovery to transform their life as it was into something meaningful.
It is not an easy decision – leaving behind your “friends” and what you know, and you do it because you just can’t go on like this anymore. That takes them into the concept of Threshold Guardians. The journey is hard, especially at the beginning. The hero, or the person attempting to get sober, has terrible demons they have to fight – from guilt, depression, loneliness, anger (let alone the cravings and temptations), and the list goes on. The Threshold Guardians will test this person to the edge of relapse, and it is only with the right tools that they can overcome them.
The hero in Campbell’s book receives help from others along the way. It is the perfect analogy to a sponsor. With the right sponsor, sobriety is achievable, but not without support from the community (which is why daily meetings are so important. When a newcomer walks in the door, they will be told over and over to attend 30 meetings in 30 days) – that kind of fellowship is one of the keys to success. The one thing I did not have, but my stakeholders insisted I include in my NPO, was community and a sense of well-being.
If this person continues down the path of recovery, they will experience a beautiful transformation – the Apotheosis and Transformation that is examined in Campbell’s book. From making amends to those they have hurt to healing relationships, maintaining or getting a job, and a healthier lifestyle. These are the rewards they receive. It is a hard journey they want to give up on many times, but it is so well worth what they get out of it. For the alcoholic, the journey never really ends, but life is so much better. They have shed off the old way of doing life, hopefully are living their best life now. If I have my way, they will have a much closer union with God and full dependence on the Holy Spirit to continue the right path.
The transformation has led to life experience and wisdom that can be taken to help others. The 12-step program is one of service – to help others on their way. Taking all the things they have learned as they go through the steps, with the help of a sponsor, has changed their value systems, thought patterns, and outlook on life. Their actions, relationships, dedication to sobriety, and an inexplicable joy show their transformation. To take all this, help transform another life, and have them do the same for someone else is a beautifully unique set of ways that few experience.
Those actions reflect The Return with the Elixir stage, where the sober individual is now part of the community they once shunned. They have gifts of wisdom and knowledge of how to overcome the cycle of addictions for those still in it. In today’s world of fentanyl, opioids, and other destructive habits, the ability to interact with someone who has been down that road and beat it is invaluable.
Years ago, I had the fortunate experience of attending the funeral of a friend’s grandfather, who passed away. He was a Navajo Indian, and my friend honored him at the funeral. What was discussed was the circle of life and how they felt that the person who died would return, possibly in another form, and do it all again. 12-step programs are a form of the circle of life. They die to the old way of life and have a chance to do it all over again.
[1] Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Novato, CA: New World Library, 2008), 11.
About the Author
Chris Blackman
16 responses to “Hi, My name is Hero and I am a….”
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Chris,
Great way to incorporate the Hero’s journey into the journey to recovery. Since reading Campbell’s material, I am starting to see this everywhere I look. I see it in the television or movies I watch (with the little time I have to watch). You don’t have to answer this question publicly or at all, but I wonder, what Threshold Guardians you had to fight on your own journey and how has that battle made you a better person?
Hey Jeff,
Thank you for your response. I haven’t been to a 12-step meeting in over 20 years, but the person that affected me the most was the very first sponsor that I had named Gene. On my way to work, I stopped at his home every morning and had coffee with him. He was much older than I and very wise. At the time, I was Catholic (raised in a very strict Catholic home), and my image of God was a furious God with a big hammer waiting for me to screw up. Gene showed me a God I did not know existed – a beautiful and loving God who deeply cared for me. Those morning coffees were the foundation of my faith journey to the God I now know and worship.
I appreciated how you framed the Hero’s journey in the context of a recovery. Pretty cool.
I’m glad that your stakeholders helped you see the need for community and a sense of well-being. Why do you think the community is significant in the journey? What aspects of a community are particularly helpful for someone in recovery?
Chris, I am going to jump into this thread as well. I loved that you were able to see the hero’s journey in those making a recovery. I do wonder what is the biggest hurdle that causes people to fail their own hero journey and return to the previous life they were living? What makes one person a hero, and one not?
Hey Adam! Tough question!! As I sat on that, I came up with what I think is the main reason: the ability to overcome current and past trauma. Some people can deal with it through prayer and counseling; some just turn to an immediate but temporary respite and do what they do. Sadly drugs like Oxycontin hook you pretty quickly and that temporal desire turns into a long term habit.
Still gonna chew on this though 🙂
I’d like to tag on this thread as well. Chris, thank you for sharing this great connection between Campbell and sobriety.
I am wondering what was the most impactful part(s) of your personal monomyth in becoming a sober hero?
Thank you Kari,
There was a very stressful period in my life (over 30 years ago) when I definitely drank too much. That is where I got involved with AA. I grew to love the rag-tag group of people that I was around.
20 years ago, I ran into an old surfing buddy who, not surprisingly, was a pastor of a relatively large church. I was volunteering on the phones at an AA center to answer questions for those who called in. I asked my surfer/pastor friend Lance if his church had any recovery-related programs, and he looked into my eyes and told me they had a few people who had drinking problems in his church, but Jesus healed them all. That was a defining moment for me. It went against everything I had been taught. To make a long story short, I believe in Jesus’s healing hand. Today, I have a glass of wine a few times a week when cooking dinner, and yes, I had a beer at one of Oxford’s pubs. It has no control over me anymore. I am forever grateful to Pastor Lance for reminding me of the power of Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Graham.
You are barely hanging on by the time you get into a 12-step room. Seeing and hearing a group of people who have been where you are and seeing that they are doing well and are healthy gives that person hope, maybe for the first time.
By the time they get there, most people have ruined families and relationships, and to have a group of people rally around them, not judge, and only want the best for them is a breath of fresh air. There are miracles in those rooms.
Chris – I always enjoy reading your posts. Great application to your NPO!
The hero’s journey is one that is so natural in life. We struggle, get help along the way, overcome, and are changed as a result.
We certainly see this in a sobriety journey.
Do you see this same patterns in other areas of life?
Thank you, Christy.
I said something to Ryan in his post that I actually think this is an everyday journey – even in the small things. Whether they are work, financial, health, or family struggles. We have to face them, learn from them, and hopefully be a better and wiser person because of it. Interesting question. Thank you!
Thanks for connecting the journey of sobriety with the Hero’s journey. I really appreciated it.
How can a pastor be an ally for those on this journey of sobriety? Asking for a friend… 🙂
LOL Ryan. Such wise friends you have 🙂
I will answer your question in two and a half years 🙂
Your question is one of the reasons I am doing my project. So many pastors don’t know what to do. I hope to give them tools to address it, but honestly, I don’t yet know what that looks like!! I have many thoughts, but I am doing my best to trust the process and get this done right!!
Stay tuned!!
Chris, I really enjoyed how you effortlessly wove the Hero’s Journey into the journey of sobriety.
While this might be a bit odd to say, reading your tak sounded both exciting and empowering. It made me wonder how framing your project around the Hero’s Journey might actually be a way to encourage and excite the individuals you end up serving…
Have you thought about that? What opportunities might it provide to help the men you work with break out of past labels and see themselves as heroes who can chart a new path forward?
Thank you, Akwése, for your thoughtful post. I am fascinated by your thoughts. I won’t do this answer justice, but I promise to consider it as I do my project.
One of my struggles with people in recovery is that they suffer from so much shame and low self-esteem (at least for the first year or so). Figuring out a way to change that and showing them that by taking the first steps of breaking the bondage on them, they are a hero, and embracing that could be huge!! This is fascinating to me. We all need to believe in ourselves and have hope. Interesting!!
One more thing to talk about WHEN Nancy and I come visit!
Chris, I love the analogy to the 12-step program and the alcoholic. Great application! As we follow Christ, we all must die to ourselves and be reborn in Christ. Funny how that follows the hero’s journey, isn’t it?
Thanks Debbie,
The road to salvation definitely follows the hero’s journey and has the best ending ever!!