{"id":35423,"date":"2024-02-01T08:36:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T16:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35423"},"modified":"2024-02-01T10:32:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T18:32:51","slug":"35423-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/35423-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What Stories Are You Telling Yourself?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Created in Canva by Nancy Blackman<\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t consider myself a hero, but this book reminds me of some people who have been heroes in my life. I think about my eldest aunt on my mother\u2019s side (\uc774\ubaa8 \u2013 imo \u2013 pronounced \u201ceemo\u201d). For the longest time, Korean women were not allowed to get an education beyond 8th<\/sup> grade, but my \uc774\ubaa8 changed \u201cherstory\u201d by becoming the first woman in South Korea to get a law degree in the 1950s. She then went on to become the Speaker of the House. Then, there\u2019s my grandfather, who, during World War II and the Korean War was part of the Korean Independence Movement that eventually helped bring freedom for South Koreans.<\/p>\n

Apparently, my paternal grandmother was an integral part of the Suffrage Movement and I think of her as a hero because without those women I would not have the right to vote today.<\/p>\n

When I think about how the heroes in my family have intersected with mine, I think of how Campbell breaks down the hero\u2019s journey in stages. This was created in Chat GPT, but I can see how the stages create a path \u2014 the call, challenges, transformation, return, myth as metaphor, cultural universality, spiritual dimensions, and the hero in each of us.<\/p>\n

And I think about the heroes of my NPO (to create a safe, inclusive, interfaith community for artists and writers to explore their spirituality).<\/p>\n

A little backstory <\/strong><\/p>\n

My NPO stems from an 18-month journey of writing on Medium. During that time, I opened a publication\u2014Refresh the Soul\u2014where I invited writers of all faiths to gather and share their spiritual journeys.<\/p>\n

The beautiful thing about the Medium platform is that there are approximately 100 million monthly visitors each month, with 60 million of those being readers. Once I had Refresh the Soul up and running with a regular flow of submissions, I began to see something even more wonderful happening. The Hindu writer was commenting on the Christian writer\u2019s blog (and vice versa), each of them learning from each other.<\/p>\n

Last semester when I met with my stakeholders, most of them were writers from the Medium publication. One stakeholder said, \u201cWhen I submitted my first writing to Refresh the Soul I didn\u2019t know if it was going to be too woo-woo for the publication, but Nancy not only published my piece she left me a very encouraging note, which made me feel seen and I knew I had found a spiritual home for my writing.\u201d I was so touched by her comment as I also heard the Spirit showing me that this is what is needed.<\/p>\n

In my book, writers and artists are heroes. Every day they sit down to write or create beautiful art. Eventually, they get the confidence to show their words and art to the world, putting a piece of themselves out for people to read and see. For the writers of Refresh the Soul, they did it every week, week after week. Such bravery.<\/p>\n

Campbell asks, \u201cWhy do we tell the stories that we do about whatever it is that is out there?\u201d[1]<\/a> What creates fear within you that stops you from being the hero of your own life? And, we all need to be reminded (I\u2019m guessing) that as we enter our own monomyth journey, we will also have a higher capacity to be more present, encouraging, and loving to those in our community.<\/p>\n

Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

What do you need to step into your invitation from God to go forth and conquer whatever God is leading you to?<\/p>\n

Yes, there will be challenges. No journey is ever without a challenge. Each of us knows that though the challenge is hard, transformation will happen. And that transformation brings beauty within you and your community.<\/p>\n

Personal Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a devastating situation occur in college because of a Dean who told me I would never be allowed to attend an accredited university. In my story, he will always be referred to as \u201cthe ogre.\u201d After trudging through 5 years, I received a letter one Summer telling me not to return. I would no longer be considered a student because my GPA dropped to a ghastly 1.9. Yes, this once 4.0 student had failed miserably. And, if you know anything about the honor\/shame culture, that also brought shame to my family. And the story I told myself for many years was that I was too stupid.<\/p>\n

And then one morning I saw a class advertised at my local community college\u2014Career Planning. I enrolled, and by the time I was done with that class, healing was beginning. Part of it was due to the instructor\u2014another hero in my life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

It was because of her that I was encouraged to take an Introduction to Graphic Design class. Yes, me, the person who had, up until that point, never taken an art class. After one semester, I quit my job, moved back in with my parents, and finished an Associate’s Degree in Advertising Design. That set me up for a successful 25+ year career as a graphic designer and Art Director.<\/p>\n

Campbell\u2019s final paragraph is powerful: Today\u2019s hero is a person who grabs the invitation to be transformed without waiting for their supporters to give a nod.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cLive,\u201d Nietzsche says, \u201cas though the day were here. It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal \u2014 carries the cross of the redeemer \u2014 not in the bright moments of his tribe\u2019s great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.\u201d\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, what do you need to step into your hero journey?<\/p>\n

Sidenote: I absolutely LOVED this book and will re-read this.<\/em><\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> John Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces,<\/em> Third ed. (Novato: New World Library, 2008), 11. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 25.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 527.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t consider myself a hero, but this book reminds me of some people who have been heroes in my life. I think about my eldest aunt on my mother\u2019s side (\uc774\ubaa8 \u2013 imo \u2013 pronounced \u201ceemo\u201d). For the longest time, Korean women were not allowed to get an education beyond 8th grade, but my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"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":[3030,2967,2111,2112,2578],"class_list":["post-35423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-josephcampbell","tag-dlgp03","tag-hero","tag-monomyth","tag-mythology","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35423","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\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35423"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35435,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35423\/revisions\/35435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}