where are all the heroes?

[Peter Kropotkin]

I have been rereading Campbell's "Hero with a thousand faces"
and I am connecting some of Campbell's thoughts with recent
ideas of my own...

as I have suggested of late, well since forever, that
our current pursuits, of seeking the baubles of existence,
money, fame, titles, material goods, and power are empty
pursuits, not much different than thinking that eating healthy
is best done by eating crap, ice cream, hot dogs, pizza,
red meat 3 meals a day....you think you are eating healthy, but
you are not. and that crap you are eating is in fact, making
you sick...but because you have been indoctrinated, brainwashed,
you think that crap is healthy for you...it is not...

the pursuit of the baubles is the same thing as eating crap...
the crap you are eating, the baubles of existence, is making you
sick, but not physically sick, but mentally and psychologically sick,
in fact, we may call it being soul sick...

but if we aren't to pursue the modern day crap of fame, and titles
and wealth, what should we be pursuing?

This question revolves around what is actually permanent,
solid, real.. not temporary like the baubles of existence...
wealth and fame and titles and power are all ''ad hoc'' of
the moment, with no lasting existence or reality.. we
should be pursuing things that are permanent, that will
last our entire existence...

I suspect that one of the reasons we are "soul sick" is that
we have lost contact with who we are...the pursuit
that we must engage in, is the pursuit of wisdom.. for wisdom,
unlike wealth or fame or titles, will last from one generation to
to the next.. and the pursuit of wisdom, who actually is the person
that pursues wisdom?

Campbell makes it clear that the hero, be it Jesus or Mohammed
or Nietzsche or the Buddha, are the hero's that we are meant
to follow, to make as our role models... but it isn't just those
''hero's" we are supposed to use as guides into finding wisdom,
but we can add many who are modern day hero's... MLK,
Gandhi, Kierkegaard, Goethe... those who seek what it
means to be human and bring out wisdom we
ought to be seeking...

a hero tells us what our place in the universe is and how
we are to get there.. and that is why seeking the baubles
of existence is such a failure... we can't use them to become
who we are... to become human... for in seeking the baubles
of existence, we are just seeking worthless trinkets that tell
us nothing about who we are or how to become human...
the path of existence is going from animal to animal/human,
(where most people are) to becoming human, where our
hero's reside... the hero's seek out what is possible for us
and how do we embrace those possibilities....

the fact is that we seek existence as pointless and meaningless,
but that is because we don't have any goals or possibilities we
are seeking... the hero gives us new goals, new possibilities for
us to seek out.. we are in dire need of hero's because
they inform us as to what it means to be human....

so what does this mean? should we begin to seek out hero's
to follow? NO, in fact, I would suggest that we can go one
step further and become hero's ourselves... that we can
not only follow hero's but we can become them...

How do you become the hero of your story?
What values should you and us, should be following...

the hero tells us a story that allows us to
see what it means to be human...and the path to becoming
is the story of the hero... to becoming our possibilities..
that is the point and reason for the hero... to see what is
possible for us and how do we become those possibilities....


Kropotkin

[promethean75]

We don't need another hero. We don't need to know the way home. All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Keter.