{"id":30661,"date":"2023-02-01T07:47:57","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T15:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30661"},"modified":"2023-02-01T07:47:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T15:47:57","slug":"a-tale-of-two-crosses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-tale-of-two-crosses\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Crosses"},"content":{"rendered":"

In reading through Joseph Campbell\u2019s, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>, 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, \u201cSymbols are only the vehicles<\/em> of communication.\u201d[1]<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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The Public Cross: Adventure, Crisis, Victory<\/p>\n

Monomyth<\/em>, coined by Joseph Campbell is, \u201cCommonly 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.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 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\u2019s Journey<\/em> are the scaffolding that organizes the story, providing insight to the purpose and meaning of life\u2019s troublesome experiences.<\/p>\n

The journey Matthew Winkler visualized in the TEDEd video is exciting, purposeful, repeatable, and doable.[3]<\/a> It\u2019s 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\u2019s summation feels more like a welcome adventure that I want and choose to take. It\u2019s a rather cleaned up version. It presents more like a self-help tool to get me where I already want to go. I don\u2019t feel the weight of the journey or the sacrifices that await. I am unaware of the realities ahead. It\u2019s a bit deceptive yet filled with hope.<\/p>\n

The journey begins. The challenges unfold. The victories won.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t feel quite so real.<\/p>\n

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The Private Cross: Despair and Hope<\/p>\n

I found truth in Campbell\u2019s final sentence. He writes, \u201cAnd so, every one of us shares the supreme ordeal\u2014carries the cross of the redeemer\u2014not in the bright moments of his tribe\u2019s great victories, but in the silence of his personal despair.\u201d[4]<\/a> 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\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n

If I Judge the heroic journey solely by the outcome and the victories, I will miss the true courage and beauty of the hero\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

The hero\u2019s 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\u2019m good. When finished, I can walk away strangely touched by what I have encountered, but I don\u2019t 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 \u201csilent despair\u201d of the heroes all around me. They also carry the powerful invitation to see the pain of life\u2019s heroic journey and to embrace it. To be honest, it\u2019s easier to turn others into superheroes and never come close to their pain or face my own, for that matter. It\u2019s much easier to view the empty cross and the victory it stands for than the crucifix which reminds me of suffering.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019t feel like a hero. The hero faced the journey, come what may. The hero is perceived from without more readily than from within.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I don\u2019t want to sit with my stories. They don\u2019t 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]<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>, (Novato, CA: New World Library, 1949), 203.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u201cThe Monomyth (The Hero\u2019s Journey): Home\u201d Accessed January 22, 2023. https:\/\/libguides.gvsu.edu\/c.php?g=948085&p=6836194<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Matthew Winkler. \u201cWhat Makes a Hero?\u201d 2019, video, https:\/\/libguides.gvsu.edu\/c.php?g=948085&p=6836194<\/a><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Face, <\/em>337.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Revelation 21:4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In reading through Joseph Campbell\u2019s, 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"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":[2572],"class_list":["post-30661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02campbell","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30661","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\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30661"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30667,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30661\/revisions\/30667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}