Hero's Path

Dr. Greg Byrd

March 15, 2009

Jesus Christ, Beowulf, Odysseus, Chesley Sullenberger, Rosa Parks, Harry Potter, Gautama Buddha, Frodo Baggins, Mahatma Gandhi, Luke Skywalker, and our mothers and fathers, big sisters and big brothers. What might draw such a diverse group into one sentence? Each one is a hero in one way or another. We might look up to our parents for doing something heroic for us - our mothers for birthing us, our fathers for saving us from drowning, perhaps. People like Chesley Sullenberger and Rosa Parks rise to an occasion through bravery, skill and determination and take actions that save or improve the lives of many. Religious heroes like Jesus and Buddha go to a place where they find something of great value to the world and then bring it back to benefit all beings. We might see Frodo Baggins (from Fellowship of the Ring) and Luke Skywalker (from Star Wars) as merely made-up heroes who also take a trip and bring some great benefit to their worlds. As far back as the first recorded epic, The Epic of Gilgamesh, people have found a need to listen to and tell stories about heroes. We are no different today and perhaps we feel the need for heroes even more with the challenges facing us individually and as a society. But I say to you this morning that, more than any other, YOU are the hero you need.

You see, the stories about heroes, whether true or fictional or mythical are not entertainment, not about cheering someone more powerful or better than each of us. No. These stories are to remind us, each one, to embrace the hero's path and to see our lives as encompassing the hero's path.

The idea of showing up to work in toga, or Stetson and six-guns, or sword and armor, may seem a bit far-fetched to many (but not all) of us. And some here have completed acts of uncommon valor and heroism - saved lives, protected their country, their friends. It's tempting to fall into the trap of seeing our lives as mundane, ordinary, far from heroic, as poet W.H. Auden's "Unknown Citizen":

(To JS/07 M 378 This Marble MonumentIs Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be

One against whom there was no official complaint,

And all the reports on his conduct agree

That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,

For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.

Except for the War till the day he retired

He worked in a factory and never got fired,

But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.

Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,

For his Union reports that he paid his dues,

(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)

And our Social Psychology workers found

That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.

The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day

And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.

Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,

And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.

Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare

He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan

And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,

A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.

Our researchers into Public Opinion are content

That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;

When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.

He was married and added five children to the population,

Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.

And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.

Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

How many of us feel like this poor soul-less soul on a Wednesday or Thursday as we fill in the blanks required of us, file what needs to be filed, slog through our societally-assigned chores? Maybe just once?

This man is one who has refused the hero's call. When the opportunity came for him to take a chance to do something noble or outstanding, he refused that call and so ended with a number instead of a name. We do not have to meet the same fate.

We can choose to see ourselves as heroes in the grand epics, which are our lives. This is what our myths have been telling us to do for thousands of years. This is what our great religious teachers have been telling us to do.

The hero's journey, the quest, has three basic parts, and you may recognize these parts in your own lives and in great stories you have heard: The call to adventure, the departure, the achieving of some boon, and the return.

The call to adventure! How easy it would be if, like Luke Skywalker, we would be drawn out into the desert by the image of a beautiful woman where we would meet a wise old Zen-master teacher played by Alec Guinness who would then give us our father's sword. And how easy though tragic it would be if our home were destroyed and we had no choice but to head off on the adventure. And how much easier it would be to be sixteen or seventeen again when we believed in such nonsense! Our lives, it is true, rarely offer such clarity of mission (except when the minister reminds us of that mission in connection with stewardship!). For us, it is far too easy to refuse the call: the change from a stable job to a more rewarding but less stable career, the call to teach others what we know (when we're thinking "what do I know of any use!") the need to picket or to speak out in a good cause that just happens to occur during work hours. (Tell me, how many of us felt like heroes after Obama was elected?) But it is often just these everyday sorts of calls to adventure which can put us on that hero's path.

The departure and the path. Sometimes that path is fraught with dangerous monsters (who say things like "you can't do that - what are you thinking?") and sometimes it is filled with the dangers of monotony. My wife, Shawna, is now walking the graduate school path in counseling and I've never once seen her wield a sword, (though she once shook a butter knife at me and told me to leave her alone so she could get her work done). She spends long nights poring over her books, posting her papers, doing the tedious, rewarding work of research and learning. Some of us accept the call to adventure early. I ran track in high school and, when I was seventeen, I was hit by a car. I broke my leg and spent two weeks in the hospital. At the end of my stay, I was so weak from lying in bed that I fainted the first time I tried to use crutches. My doctor said "you'll probably walk okay, but you'll never run again." "The hell I won't," I said to myself and the following spring I competed in the mile. I ran it half a minute slower than I had before, but I ran. I know now, that moment of accepting the challenge, the call to adventure, was instrumental in my life. I've rarely balked at a challenge. In the great myths, the quest is filled with dragons who challenge the hero. In our lives, the dragons might look like friends, coworkers, laws, societal rules, that face in the mirror. If the hero is ready, he or she conquers these dragons. If, like Luke Skywalker, he's not ready, he needs to find a guide. And that's what we often need to do, too, at different points in our lives.

Achieving the boon is central to the hero's quest and it's essential to our living fulfilling lives. As we may have found out, achieving something for oneself is not nearly as satisfying as being able to share that achievement. And it's doubly rewarding when what we achieve can benefit others. This fits well into what Buddhists call "right livelihood." Jesus brought salvation. Buddha brought the way to enlightenment. Rosa Parks helped bring justice. Beowulf killed Grendel and brought peace to the land.

The Return is the essential part of the quest and completes it.

What can we bring back? If our quest is one of education, what we learn to do may help us to help others. If our quest is to handle our own mental illness, the boon we find may help us to help others in the same situation. If our quest is to open a business that serves the needs of the community, then the community benefits. And sometimes a successful quest for peace and decency within oneself radiates its boon to everyone one encounters.

Conclusion

The hero's path and the quest embodies a message sent down from countless spiritual and secular traditions from all over the world. Following this wisdom can allow us to live more purposeful and fulfilling lives which benefit ourselves and our societies.