My heavens, I thought as I read a post I had written on June 28, 2022; I do not remember writing this.
It came back to me as I read it, though—I’m not entirely out of touch with reality.
Bless the heart of the blog reader who reminded me of it and thus gave me the link. How they found that post is beyond me, but I am so glad they searched and commented. Thank you.
https://travelswithjo.com/2022/06/
As I mentioned in the last blog, I’ve been reading Steven Pressfield’s weekly blog, “Writing Wednesdays.”
https://stevenpressfield.com/blog/
I wanted to talk more about the Wilderness. You know, by The Wilderness, we don’t mean the forest or running off to Alaska. It’s that place we wander before finding our true calling. Or, there is another possibility: We know our calling but refuse to answer it.
All stories are about the Wilderness. (Good ole Joseph Campbell wrote The Journey of the Hero long before it was made famous by George Lucas in Star Wars. Lucas said that without Campbell—renowned mythology researcher and writer—there would be no Star Wars.)
The Wilderness is really the second step for the hero. After the hero finds his calling, he usually wanders for a time. (Maybe he wanders alone, worried, dejected, depressed, resisting, or procreating.) It could be that wandering has value, for he is composting, gathering data, letting it perk until it is ripe for the taking.
Even Jesus went to the Wilderness and was tempted. As did Buddha, Ulysses, and Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life. All stories contain the Wilderness.
We resonate with it. It reminds us that we aren’t the only ones who have wandered.
Now advisors remind the wanders to “Find yourself.” Do they know what that means? Do we?
And which self are we finding? Pressfield’s “Find” is the calling of our soul to express ourselves. The meta-physicians might say it is the soul’s calling to find our core beliefs, the ones that run us, and check to see if they still serve us. There are probably a few hundred more possibilities.
(I wrote a small story once called Where the Tiger Belches, where a young woman sets off in the jungle to find that spot that is her calling. She believes it will be where a tiger belches,)
I have noticed that the infamous “They” do not discourage people from being doctors, teachers, computer programmers, preachers, researchers, inventors, or other tech people. However, in the field of the arts, it is another story. “You will starve.” “Get a real job.”
Aren’t you glad some don’t listen?
So, get out there and express yourself!
Love from Jo
P.S. Some say that dogs, too, like to have a job. (A calling?) Sweetpea’s job is to sit by my feet while I am writing. She pushes me, too, to go to work. When I say, “Let’s go to work,” she’s ready. That means going to the Wayback to my office.
And then there is Dog Blog By Peaches, which someone commented on. Daughter dear told me that Peaches should write more on her site, as she inspires me to be happy. She’s been silent for a time as she wanders around heaven.
Intro to Peaches’ Blog:
“My momma says that everybody and their dog blogs. I wasn’t writing a solitary thing, but I’m correcting that right now. When momma got me, she named me Peaches The Pink Party Poodle for Peace. Now I’m Peaches, The Pink Party Poodle for Peace Pontificating. My pontification of the day is to tell you that the purpose of life is to have fun, hee, hee, and chase lizards. I love to chase lizards–never catch them, though, they taste like rotten toes.”