{"id":29173,"date":"2022-10-20T13:17:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T20:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29173"},"modified":"2022-10-21T12:34:25","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T19:34:25","slug":"29173-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/29173-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Heroic Homework"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why does it feel like I go out on what Joseph Campbell calls the \u201cadventure of the hero\u201d every time I try to write my blog for the week? Instead of facing the great wilderness or some mysterious realm that I travel to, I find myself navigating the readings we\u2019re assigned and at times lost in my own struggle to grasp and internalize what the author is trying to convey. In accordance with the twelve point plot laid out by TEDEd video \u201cWhat Makes a Hero?\u201d[1]<\/a>, I find myself travelling the Hero\u2019s Journey even as I write.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Call to Adventure \u2013 My adventure begins when I take a look at what the assigned reading is for the week (usually a Monday or Tuesday\u2026 or honestly sometimes Thursday). I\u2019m called into the task of reading and synthesizing.<\/li>\n
  2. Assistance \u2013 There is the obvious journey of slogging through the book, but like some heroes, I\u2019m only human. My special or supernatural assistance came in the form of the TEDEd video this week. Other times it comes in the form of literature reviews written by others or podcasts about the week\u2019s reading.<\/li>\n
  3. Departure \u2013 In a sense, I find that I leave my ordinary life and enter into the realm of writing when I open up a blank Word document. There\u2019s a clear shift in my sense of time, purpose, and framework of operation.<\/li>\n
  4. Trials \u2013 It\u2019s a blank Word document, and honestly, I haven\u2019t fully grasped the concepts I need to. As I begin to type, I realize that what I have is incoherent. Yet I make my way through the reading, supplemental materials, and push through to grab hold of a concept to center my blog around.<\/li>\n
  5. Approach \u2013 I am just about done with my blog and begin to think about hitting \u201csubmit\u201d.<\/li>\n
  6. Crisis \u2013 I have published my blog post and it is just out there on the internet about to be read by somebody else. My thoughts and opinions. For me this is the epitome of crisis. I wait anxiously for comments to start coming in. Sometimes I want to crawl under a rock and just die as I re-read my own writing.<\/li>\n
  7. Treasure \u2013 I don\u2019t know why I feel the sense of crisis every time, because I treasure the feedback I receive from all of you. The comments help me to further digest what I read, help me to see perspectives I could never think of, and ultimately glean some sort of knowledge or wisdom.<\/li>\n
  8. Result \u2013 Sometimes I feel empowered, ready to go at the next week\u2019s reading\/blogging adventure. Sometimes I feel defeated and unsure if I ever want to make my thoughts public again.<\/li>\n
  9. Return \u2013 Sometimes it feels like I enter and exit my DLGP work like it\u2019s a different realm. When I am done with the blog work I re-enter my \u201cnormal\u201d life as a husband, dog-dad, and pastor.<\/li>\n
  10. New Life \u2013 To some degree, because of the reading and as a result of interacting with everyone, I feel as though I experience a small modicum of transformation each week. The knowledge and\/or wisdom I gain informs my life and ministry.<\/li>\n
  11. Resolution \u2013 In a sense, all the stress, conflict, and trials I faced with the week\u2019s reading fade into the background when the week ends.<\/li>\n
  12. Status Quo \u2013 Hopefully I continue through life, in all my roles, a changed person because of the journey I traversed the week before.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It seems silly to compare my reading and writing to the mythological heroes of old. I don\u2019t possess the strength\/will of a Hua Mulan, the smarts of a Sherlock Holmes, or honestly even the luck of a Harry Potter. As I continued reading Campbell, however, I was struck by the idea that while perhaps the reading\/writing is not the adventure, the goal of becoming a better leader just might be an endeavor worthy of being compared to the hero\u2019s journey. \u201cThe center of gravity, that is to say, of the realm of mystery and danger has definitely shifted\u2026 The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait for his community\u2026 It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse.\u201d (391)[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> \u201cWhat Makes a Hero?,\u201d directed by Kirill Yeretsky, December 4, 2012, video, https:\/\/youtu.be\/Hhk4N9A0oCA.<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em> (Joseph Campbell Foundation, 2020), 391.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Why does it feel like I go out on what Joseph Campbell calls the \u201cadventure of the hero\u201d every time I try to write my blog for the week? Instead of facing the great wilderness or some mysterious realm that I travel to, I find myself navigating the readings we\u2019re assigned and at times lost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2347,789],"class_list":["post-29173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01","tag-campbell","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29201,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29173\/revisions\/29201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}