“Something that my college coach told me is that you have to fall in love with the process of becoming great.”
The quote comes from Blake Griffin, an NBA player who won the Rookie of Year award for the 2010-2011 season and been an All Star every years since. I would say he’s fallen in love with the process of becoming great.
At this point I know what you’re saying, “What in the hell does Blake Griffin have to do with the Hero’s Journey?” Well, there’s an answer to that. First though, I want to stress that stories, whether they are about basketball, whiny moisture farmers, or orphan boys with badass lightning scars are not just stories, but studies of how human’s struggle through life.
That’s what I’m talking about with the hero’s journey. I’m talking about connections that we can make between the actual touch-and-feel realities of life, and the journeys that we imagine.
One of my favorite of those journeys is that of Luke Skywalker. He was awesome. Here we have this wide-eyed moisture farmer who goes on to become one of the greatest Jedis of any age. Now that is a journey. Now where does it start? With a graying old man with sagely wisdom for a young come and upper. No, I’m not talking about Obi-Wan. I’m talking about Joseph Campbell.
Campbell was actually George Lucas’ Mentor. I’m talking about the good seventies era A-New-Hope-Indiana-Jones George Lucas, not Phantom-Menace-Kingdom-of-the-Crystal-Skull-I’m-going-to-destroy-your-childhood George Lucas. He had many theories about what makes heroes, but one of the main one is this called the Monomyth, and it’s freaking awesome.
The Monomyth is basically the structure of the tried and tested methods of telling the story of a hero that has been told and retold over and over again. Now, there’s so much to talk about here with this Monomyth and the hero’s journey in general, but what I want to focus on is the rebirth.
There’s a ton that goes into this rebirth, tragic beginnings, estrangement from home, temptations, challenges, and all awesome adventures, but what really makes the hero is what follows the rebirth.
The rebirth follows the pivotal moment of abyss, the moment in which the hero reaches his/her lowest point, and makes a transformation into a true hero. Its Luke’s loss of his hand in Cloud City, Dumbledore’s death for Harry, or Boromir trying to take the ring from Frodo, leading to breaking apart of the fellowship. The good news is that this is what makes the hero.
So, what is it that makes the hero able to pass through this abyss? Why is that Frodo, Luke, and Harry can pass through events and come out the other side with a determination to accomplish the impossible? What is it that makes the difference?
Belief. That’s my answer. Heroes if they really, truly are heroes believe that they can accomplish the impossible. That’s why Blake Griffin can dedicate himself to becoming great. He knows that there’s no such thing as an impossible task, just difficult ones. He breaks it up into smaller tasks, and gets to work becoming great.
Because the hero believes that he/she can achieve the impossible they are able to do it. They commit themselves to becoming great, to mastering magic, or swordplay, or even basketball, and are eventually able to accomplish the impossible.
The thing is that you don’t have to carry a sword or wave a magic wand to be a hero. I don’t believe that Tolkien, Patten, John Nash (The mathematician from A Beautiful Mind), or that stellar father of mine are any less of a hero than Frodo, Harry, or the amazing Blake Griffin. They all start in the same place, as ordinary people with extraordinary dreams. They fall in love with the process of becoming great. They accomplish incredible things, but they do it one small step at a time. That’s where greatness comes from, small daily actions that become incredible as they stack up.
All you need to start is belief.
chasingdragons 