Barbara Beyer Albright

Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey Theory holds true

Do you go for the big outstanding amazing experience or would you just like a little slice of pie, please?

It was a slow Monday yesterday in the office so my husband, business partner, and love of my life (he wears so many hats) and I wandered over to the local theater to see Avatar. 

The Oscars were handed out the night before and (thank God) James Cameron did NOT win for best director, nor did the movie win best picture.  

But that love fest aside, and I really did put my ‘tude about Mr. Cameron aside to watch it, I still give it a big thumbs down.  It was just the same ole, same ole story to me, and all the bugs and creatures and waterfalls and high branch tree walking gave me the creeps.

Skip gave it a thumbs up. 

It’s interesting to me how different venues entertain and enlighten each of us. 

I wrote a piece once in college about a Halloween night when a young mother had an evening class at the University she needed to attend, so her husband took their 3 little kids trick or treating and when she came home late, she pulled their baby boy from where he was sleeping in his crib and breastfed him, sitting in the dark room where the tree branch shadows moved around the moonlit room, enjoying the baby’s warmth and tickling little fingers against her breasts as he emptied their fullness.   

The professor thought the paper stood out enough that he chose to read it to the class and defended it when a couple male students in the room couldn’t wrap their heads around it.

“What was it about?”  they asked.

“Nothing happened,” they complained.

Years later and apparently I’m the same creature.  I enjoyed discovering a new market in town we stopped at after the movie more than the movie. 

The colors of the fresh, organic produce in this place were a delight and I couldn’t help  myself from turning down the aisles, one after the other and skirting the perimeter to take it all in.  Food and freshness and this can become that…….

Beautiful colors and textures!

I’m not a science fiction type.  I couldn’t be more earthy and homey. Give me a little story.  I want to know about people.  One on one really.  Family.  Lovers.  Relationships.  Marriage.  Sisters.  Children.  

An epic is okay.  I’ll sit through it.   Special effects?  Honestly?  A yawn for me.   But a kitchen decorated tastefully?  Beautiful wood floors and a garden in back?  I’m all over it.  My feet tingle.

And this got me thinking – try to stay with me here – that there are all kinds of categories on Jeopardy.   And yes, I jump from colorful produce to Jeopardy as effortlessly as Jake pranced around on those vine covered tree limbs. 

But, back to those Jeopardy categories…

There’s Poetry as well as Politics.   Geology as well as Food.  Literature as well as Sports.   Ballet as well as TV sitcoms.  Some contestants make a clean sweep of a column intuitively while others stand there openmouthed with their buzzer dangling.  Yet, they come alive on another. 

Is one category of knowledge more important or worthy than another? 

No my little Einsteins! 

Go for what, and pursue what, and be okay with what you prefer.  It’s saying something to you.  Work with it.  Embrace it. 

And try not to look down your intellectual or aesthetic nose at what you don’t enjoy as much.

How can you NOT be in the moment?

I had a fantastic lunch this last week at a little place in Littleton called Tres Jolie.  I was by myself, which itself made it kind of a meditation.  It was a little coffee shop and confectionary store.  There were glass pedastals of candies and baked treats, chocolate and lemon and rum raisin goodies.  I had a glass of ice water with a tomatoe and mozzarella with pesto croissant, then indulged in a little cappucinno and a cupcake.  I sat in an overstuffed chair at an aged blue metal table on a warm February day with sunlight warming me through the big glass window.  It was so invigorating and renewing.  

It’s not that lunch solves everything, but it goes a long way. 

Since there are many ways of meditating, you know, sitting meditation, zen meditation, walking meditation, mirror meditation, that meditation that’s kind of creepy and at the same time funny to me – the kind where you concentrate on a sacred word in a centering prayer and hum it , why not try a chocolate meditation?   

I was definitely in the moment  and was renewed and strengthened by that treat at Tres Jolie.  There are many paths to the present moment and this one was delicious. 

Joan Borysenko said her “all time favorite meditation is a small, moist piece of chocolate cake eaten with exquisite attention and tremendous gratitude.  Any time we are fully present in the moment we are meditating.”

That’s all.  Merely consider it.

This morning there was something about Lysacek’s interview on the morning news that was a tap, tap, tap on my shoulder and psyche.   

He said he had to thank the male skaters who stood on the medals podium at the previous Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, because watching them was so inspirational to him.  So he had that vision before him, held it, and then continued to work and work. 

Scott Hamilton made an appearance during the interview and said, “No one worked harder or put in more time than Evan did.”  Lysacek said he trained every day and spent countless hours on the mundane parts of his routine.  He said he practiced thousands, even hundreds of thousands of times.

Inspiration + hard work = Gold sometimes

Lindsey Vonn waxed emotional after winning the gold for her skiing performance and said she was surprised at “watering up” (crying) but that her gold medal performance had been the accumulation of years of work and wanting it.  

Are there lessons here for writers? 

What inspires is different for each of us. 

What inspires you?

Write it and post it where you can see it.  Visualize it.  Draw it.  Collage it.  Vision board it.  Create whatever will keep it in front of you.

Do you want it enough?

Can you find clarity and focus?

Do you enjoy it? 

Do you love doing it?   Not just the idea of being it?

If you want to become a writer, dip into that inspirational well within and begin writing.  And keep writing.  Are there mundane aspects to writing? Oh yeah.  Do you need to work hard to be successful?  Absolutely. 

Even when you’re tired, write some more.

So today I send an energetic shout out to those Olympic athletes for their hard work, their determination, their character, talent, competitive spirit and congratulate them on dreams come true. 

Besides being fun to watch, they inspire me and they remind me that dawdling and bouncing around only get you so far. They remind me to be focused and to work hard.  Visualizing success is not enough. 

See the gold.  Go for the gold, and I promise, the harder you work, the luckier you’ll get.