{"id":354,"date":"2023-06-02T20:20:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T20:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shant.nu\/?page_id=354"},"modified":"2023-07-04T10:35:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T10:35:50","slug":"choose-your-own-heros-journey-live-a-life-full-of-meaning","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/shant.nu\/choose-your-own-heros-journey-live-a-life-full-of-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Choose Your Own Hero’s Journey, Live a Life Full of Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Be the Hero(ine) of Your Own Story<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While talking to a friend, Joel-Ji, he said this gem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life is a battle, a fight. We are all heroes in our own journey\/story<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This resonated with me, because it answered a question \/ dilemma I had: We are all now richer and happier than ever, but people still complain and bitch about life all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to turn this into a damn kids are lazy post<\/em> (though they are, tots).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, I want to talk about WHY people are so unsatisfied with their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life up to very recent times<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as back as the 18-19th century, people had very little control of their destiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were born in a family and would take your father’s profession, usually by the age of 14. Which was good if your father was a Lord; but more likely, he was a farmer or coal mine worker, which meant goody good hard work, and a possibility to die horribly young at age 15!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women had it easier. All you had to do was marry by age 14, and try not to die when giving birth, your life safe in the hands of a doctor who believed washing his hands before operations was for losers, even if it meant killing the mothers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your destiny was set before you were even born. And that is why medieval stories (which live on in the fantasy genre) were about a common man, usually a pig farmer, who went out for adventuring and became a hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hero\u2019s cliche<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hero\u2019s Journey has become a clich\u00e9. I blame Hollywood. There is a best-selling book by a guy who used it for writing scripts. The problem is, a good idea was turned into a formula, such that Every. Single. Movie. Has to use it. You have writers jump through hoops just to fit the formula, and it ends up looking stupid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who don\u2019t know, the Hero\u2019s Journey was written about by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell wasn\u2019t saying that every story HAD to use this formula. Instead, he said that most myths follow a version of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic version is: Our hero (or heroine) is an ordinary dude\/chick, living a life of ordinariness, eating ordinary corn flakes (not the 30% reduced sugar ones), drinking ordinary milk, and having a boring life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then something happens. They are called to adventure. There might be danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interesting thing is, though our Hero is bored to fuck with his life, he still prefers it to taking a risk on something new. We will come back to this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, the Adventure knows where you live, and it comes knocking at your door, and the hero is forced to go on an adventure. Luke Skywalker has the Empire kill his family, Frodo faces the danger from outside his tiny village that is hunting him. The hero can no longer hide or pretend it’s not their problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this journey, the Hero faces many challenges, meets friends and allies, as well as people who challenge him. But the hero overcomes the odds and defeats the enemy, whoever it might be. The Evil empire, the Evil Mother in Law, the Insurance Company that Won\u2019t Return Your Calls, Now They Have Your Money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the story doesn\u2019t end there. The hero returns to his ordinary life, his ordinary village, and is now a changed person. One scene cut from the movie was when Frodo and Sam return to their village, they find Saruman and a bunch of Orcs have enslaved their people. Our heroes have to free their village , this time alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hero maybe changed internally– they might become more thoughtful, or patient, understanding or compassionate, and this shows up in how they relate to people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is the Hero\u2019s Journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it’s not just a story. Campbell found this story in multiple myths, myths that were used to train children in the ages past, before the word myth just became \u201cother people\u2019s religion\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These myths showed us how to live, how to act with courage and honour, how to face life\u2019s challenges while not coming across as a prick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I believe the reason we are so miserable is that our lives are too easy. We don\u2019t have enough challenges. AND we have lost touch with the ancient myths that gave our lives purpose and meaning. We are living longer lives, but the lives are often meaningless and empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Meaning of Life?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you search for Meaning of Life<\/em> or similar terms, one of the top books will be the excellent Man\u2019s Search for Meaning<\/em> by Victor Frankl, who discovered that even the horrors of Nazism couldn\u2019t take away a person\u2019s dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankl learnt to remain calm and dignified even as people were being murdered around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is- we can\u2019t use this approach more generally. Frankl did find meaning in his life through suffering, but his was such an extreme example, we can\u2019t really replicate it. Neither would we want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suffering builds character, but only up to a point. After that, it just kills you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, we still need a little bit of suffering in our life<\/a>, a little bit of challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without this challenge, we become weak; and not just individuals, but societies start dying as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people in modern societies cannot even handle the smallest of stress. We have been brainwashed into believing that stress is bad for us, we need to have a chilled life etc etc. And that is true if you are working 80 hour weeks while being screamed at by your boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most people fall apart at the smallest amount of stress:<\/p>\n\n\n\n