Hero’s Journey
One of the most inspirational books in my own journey is Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Although I read most of the books listed on this site in my twenties while I was working in the Artificial Intelligence lab at NASA Ames, I did not immediately map the messages to my own life. I read them as books about computer science or writing, and in some cases, didn’t understand the underlying message except in the most superficial way. It is only now, when I have a life and a message that allows me to map my trajectory to their ideas directly, that the deeper meaning is becoming clearer.
In the case of Joseph Campbell, he suggests making a list of peak experiences in your life and drawing a timeline through them. This will give you some indication of your next step, taking you back to people and events that were significant, and in my case, represented unfinished business. Then, from there, you can begin to plan your next adventure, seeking new experiences that are similar to the old ones, or at least reminiscent of them to the point where those old emotions and memories begin to surface.
Campbell calls this process “following your bliss.” To me, it is directly linked to the Buddhist concept of satori. It is a way to train your mind to seek higher states of consciousness in everyday life. It does not require validation from an external source. Instead, you will begin to notice synchronicities and effortless flow as you embark upon your own hero’s journey. You will lose interest in the mundane. Your fearful, addictive mind will begin to fall away.
Our bliss is the what, where, and when we feel most authentic, most ourselves. It is what we are doing when time drops away and we reside in an eternal now. Eternal means more than “forever.” From the Latin e or outside, and ternum or time, that which is eternal exists outside time. It transcends time.
When you are in your bliss, ego concerns dissolve: you aren’t thinking about that misunderstanding with your sister, or what you should do for dinner, how you’re going to pay the light bill next Tuesday, or what’s on television tonight. When you are in your bliss, whether that bliss is sculpting clay or crunching numbers, time ceases to exist.
Here are some steps in the hero’s journey:
The call: The hero receives a call to adventure.
The threshold: The hero crosses the threshold into an unknown world.
The journey: The hero embarks on a transformative journey.
The ordeal: The hero overcomes the main obstacle or enemy.
The reward: The hero gains a reward, such as a treasure or “elixir”.
The return: The hero returns to the ordinary world with the reward.
Although I am no longer at NASA, and am now semi-retired in South Carolina, I don’t think that my path would have been possible had I stayed on beyond 2012. I have used every last bit of information that I gleaned from my time there, ending with open government, open data and open source software, but after that I transitioned to learning the basics of entrepreneurship in San Diego, which would not have been possible at NASA. I feel somewhat isolated in Murrells Inlet, and no longer have the contacts I would need to make the planetary maps “official,” but on the other hand, I seem to be the only one playing in the space roadbotics sandbox, which gives me ample time to explore possible scenarios and optimal models for the planetary address framework. I assume my ideal co-founder, who would necessarily have those contacts, will eventually emerge, allowing me to move forward in a more impactful way.
