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Joseph Campbell wrote, \u201cNot everyone has a destiny: only the hero who has plunged to touch it, and has come up again\u2014with a ring.\u201d[1]<\/a> Simon Winchester, author, journalist, and broadcaster, might offer a paraphrase based on his book, The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology<\/em>.[2]<\/a> He might say, \u201cNot everyone has a destiny: only the hero who has plunged to touch it, and has come up again\u2014with a [map].\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n His book is classified by the Library of Congress under the science umbrella, specifically geology, but it reads like a biography of William Smith\u2019s life and recounts his hero\u2019s journey\u2014a hero\u2019s journey fueled by Smith\u2019s insatiable sense of curiosity or what Winchester describes as his \u201cintellectual passion.\u201d[3]<\/a> And a hero\u2019s journey whose resultant boon[4]<\/a> \u201c\u2026signified the beginnings of an era not yet over, that has been marked ever since by the excitement and astonishment of scientific discoveries that allowed human beings to start at last to stagger out from the fogs of religious dogma, and to come to understand something certain about their own origins\u2014and those of the planet they inhabit.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Smith\u2019s hero\u2019s journey included times of severe testing. He was of common birth in 18th<\/sup>-19th<\/sup> century England where only being born noble opened doors of opportunity. He was predominantly self-educated, and so had no institutional clout. His pre-eminent work in mapping what could not be seen beneath the earth\u2019s surface aroused vicious jealousy among those gently born\u2014to the point that these rivals copied his geological-formations-of-Great-Britain map and claimed it as their own. This, in part, led to Smith\u2019s utter financial ruin, eventual imprisonment in debtor\u2019s prison,[6]<\/a> and the ruination of both his health and that of his wife.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But Smith also encountered helpers on his hero\u2019s journey, including nobleman Sir John Johnstone, who recognized Smith\u2019s brilliance and employed him as his estate surveyor.[7]<\/a> This opportunity eventually led to Smith being recognized in London by fellow geologists for his original, brilliant contribution to the fledgling field.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Smith\u2019s tenacity and single-minded focus also brought to my mind Steven Pressfield\u2019s insights regarding creativity. Pressfield writes: \u201cThe essence of professionalism is the focus upon the work and its demands, while we are doing it, to the exclusion of all else.\u201d[9]<\/a> Winchester captures this tenacity when he writes,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All the Herculean labors involved in the mapping of the imagined underside of an entire country were accomplished not by an army or a legion or a committee or a team, but by the single individual who finally put his signature to the completed document\u2014William Smith\u2026it was conceived, imagined, begun, undertaken, and continued and completed against all odds by just [this] one man.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Indeed, Smith lived Pressfield\u2019s closing remarks, \u201cCreative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention\u2026It\u2019s a gift to the world and every being in it.\u201d[11]<\/a> Surely Smith\u2019s geologic strata map of Great Britain has been a gift to the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Winchester\u2019s artful description of the impact Smith\u2019s map has had on the world also caught my attention. As quoted above, he writes that Smith\u2019s map: \u201c\u2026allowed human beings to start at last to stagger out from the fogs of religious dogma, and to come to understand something certain about their own origins\u2014and those of the planet they inhabit.\u201d[12]<\/a> In our readings and discussions related to Max Weber\u2019s The Protestant Ethic and the \u201cSpirit\u201d of Capitalism (and Other Writings)<\/em>[13]<\/a> we have grappled with the human need for assurance and the implications this has had for theological discourse and the resultant practical impacts on people\u2019s actions and decisions\u2014birthing \u00a0both the development of the Protestant work ethic and capitalism. In Smith\u2019s map, and this glimpse into the fledging filed of geology, born on the cusp of the second Industrial Revolution, we see another contribution to the human hunger for assurance as well as a tool that fueled the spread of capitalism, industrialization, and both the beneficial and destructive dynamics emergent from these realities.<\/p>\n It leaves me pondering the complex intersections of ideas, discoveries, and practices that laid the foundation for the world I now inhabit. It also pushes me, as a leader, to recognize that new innovations bring both benefits and negative unintended consequences; I need to press forward in rigorous ethical reflection and practice as I seek to birth new initiatives into this world that may also have long-term benefits and negative unintended consequences.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Campbell, Joseph. 2008. The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>. 3rd ed. Bollingen Series XVII. Novato, Calif: New World Library, 196.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Winchester, Simon. 2009. The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology<\/em>. Repr. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid., 195.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Campbell, 211.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Winchester, xviii.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Ibid., 257.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Ibid., 278.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Ibid., 281+.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Pressfield, Steven. 2002. The War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles<\/em>. New York, NY, Los Angeles: Black Irish Entertainment LLC, 99.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n [10] Winchester, xix.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Pressfield, 165.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n