One evening I, Theresa, was watching the movie, Finding Joe, with a friend. We were thoroughly engrossed in the movie when my 22 year old son, Pat, arrived back from work. He asked what we were watching and after telling him, he asked that I give him the DVD when we were finished. I did just that and the following night, after work again, he came home and talked to me for 1½ hours about the film. He said “that was the best movie I have ever seen. It was so inspiring, I’ve got to show all my friends.” So what was it about this movie that inspired a 22-year old?
Finding Joe (click on to view the movie’s trailer) is an exploration of famed Mythologist Joseph Campbell’s studies and their continuing impact on our culture. Through interviews with visionaries from a variety of fields interwoven with enactments of classic tales by a sweet and motley group of kids, the film navigates the stages of what Campbell dubbed The Hero’s Journey: the challenges, the fears, the dragons, the battles, and the return home as a changed person. Rooted in deeply personal accounts and timeless stories, Finding Joe shows how Campbell’s work is relevant and essential in today’s world and how it provides a narrative for how to live a fully realized life – or as Campbell would simply state, how to “follow your bliss”.
Pat and I talked about the “fears and dragons” we each have that get in the way of “following our bliss” and the courage it takes to do what you know is your passion. Pat is a drummer and loves music so much and yet has struggled to turn his passion into a viable career. My life has been a series of hero’s journeys from building a life as a wife, mother, business owner and teacher to ending a marriage, creating a new life, building new relationships with my adult children, and sustaining a business with Mary Anne that is an expression of my (and Mary Anne’s) passion for helping businesses and individuals reach their full potential. Pat, at 22, and I, at 54, had something in common and the film enabled us to connect in a way I would have never imagined.
What I know for sure is that life is a series of hero’s journeys … we start off in a direction we feel compelled to follow (some of us may be thrusted into the journey not always willingly or with choice). Once on the journey, we encounter difficulties that cause us to face not only our own fears and doubts but the disapproval or discouragement from those around us, and yet, somehow we find the courage (or determination) to keep going despite the inner and outer dragons we encounter. We return from these experiences often a little wiser, stronger and self-confident.
Tell us about the hero’s journeys you’ve had. Here are some questions to consider:
– Where am I in my hero’s journey?
– What were the most powerful dragons that I’ve had to slay?
– How was my life or I changed by this journey?
We’d love to hear from you!
