Today we don’t have the stasis that is required for the formation of a mythic tradition. The rolling stone gathers no moss. Myth is moss. So now you’ve got to do it yourself, ad lib. … We’re all without dependable guides.*
Joseph Campbell

We are all haunted by something deep inside of us, and often a lot of our best work is the result of us trying to come to terms with that.**

Our existence lies within two worlds:
The ordinary world of everyday things,
And the special world of meaning and significance.

This is far too simple a way of
describing our worlds, for which
I apologise,
It is a starting place only.

Who am I?
is an ordinary world question that has an inkling
there is more to life than meets the everyday eye;
When asked in the special world, this question becomes
Who is my True Self?

What can I do with my life?
is another ordinary world question that is altered
when asked in the special world, becoming
What is my Contribution?

These questions arrive with us from Theory U, but
I have connected them for some time with
Joseph Campbell’s diagnosis that we each are in need
of two myths:
One that is personal and the other social.

The problem is that we struggle to shape
our necessary stories in our fast-moving, noisy busy
ordinary worlds,
And we are constantly frustrated that this is so
(How many of us have wanted to find the answer by the
close of the podcast we have been listening to,
Or the final pages of the self-help book?);
We must enter our special worlds that
very much feel to be interruptions.

Peter Senge wrote of systems-thinking that many problems
do not lie in the obvious or reinforcing loop of the system,
But rather in the hidden or background balancing loop;
Attending to this takes more time and attention,
And so it is often put off or ignored.

What Senge’s systems-thinking highlights is that
our most important questions cannot be properly dealt with
in our ordinary worlds, rather
we must find and journey into our special worlds;
I mention their plurality because
these are different for each of us, though
they contain similar questions and challenges.

What we feed with our time and focus will grow.^

*Joseph Campbell’s Pathways to Bliss;
**gapingvoid’s blog: Spiritual Redemption;
^Beth Pickens’ Make Your Art No Matter What.