“Oh, Mr Campbell, you just don’t know about the modern generation. We go directly from infancy to wisdom.” I said, “That is great. All you’ve missed is life.”*
Joseph Campbell

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.**
The Apostle Paul

My father was born in 1909,
His father, whom I never knew, was
born in 1872.
This span of time has provided me a sense of how
much has changed
across the generations,
each having more than the one before.
Though I can easily forget,
I try to hold on to the wisdom from the past
that can help me to become more, rather
than to have more,
Wisdom I keep before me especially in these lines –
Which, counterintuitively, enlarge rather than constrict life:
Life is hard,
You are not as special as you think,
Your life is not about you,
You are not in control,
You are going to die.
Joseph Campbell gave his life to
understanding how critical myths are to us,
These stories helping us to find our
bliss,
Enabling us to live larger lives through
humility – the world doesn’t revolve around us, and
gratitude – we have so much if we bother to notice, and
faithfulness – serving one another:
Life is an expression of bliss.*

Few of us inherit the rich and complex mythologies that the Sanū pass on – the sense of the world alive around us, and of ancestors keeping a gentle watch residing in the very rocks were stand on, the very wind that buffets us. Most of us have to make our own, if we think to do it at all.^

*Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey;
**Romans 12:3;
^Katherine May’s Wintering.