Our curiosity propels life stories. We emerge in action, by doing (physically and psychologically) in created circumstances, responding to essential questions like, “who am I? and “what’s next?.”
Our lives emerge in stories.
We act ourselves alive:
- To find our place in the Universe
- To discover our identities in each new moment
- To recognize our needs and wants
- To let our needs and wants move us
- To form and navigate relationships
- To respond to a persistent flow of changes
- To live life alive
Humans have been storying since the beginning of story time. Over millennia our stories have embedded in Collective Consciousness. Mythic stories transcend the boundaries of time, geography and specific cultural identity. They share themes and congruent structures.
Joseph Campbell was a preeminent explorer and scholar of Myth. He examined the universal functions of myth in various human cultures and mythic figures in a wide range of literatures.
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” ~Joseph Campbell
“The Hero With A Thousand Faces” details the persistent shape of mythic stories. Many writers, especially for the screen, have been influenced explicitly by Campbell’s book. The work of all creatives is informed at the implicate level by virtue of collective consciousness (mythic zeitgeist), including us, HUMAN ACTORS, as we create lives lived alive.
As we’ve discussed ad nauseam, given the commercial character of society at large, amplified by media, which has conditioned us en masse to sell ourselves to ourselves, and schools which have perverted education to serve its own interests, largely in sync with media, we’ve been packaged tightly with little if any impetus to see beyond determined horizons.
Our curiosity has been maimed at inestimable cost to individual and collective wellbeing. Our human birthright, the capacity to see ourselves and the universe anew, has been sacrificed.
“All education is just about making people curious. That’s all it’s about.” ~Stephen Sondheim
We’ve been deprived of true education, one intended to nurture our natural desire to play and learn. Instead we are coerced by promises of “success” and indoctrinated into a world that rewards a belief system comprised of information sets rooted in we “already know.”
Our appreciation for the mystery of life is disintegrated, while a false sense of security, founded in “we know,” is touted loudly.
“We will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation . . . What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder. . . . Reverence is one of our answers to the presence of mystery.” ~Abraham Heschel
Story (myth) drives us out of our ordinary world into a new and unknown one. IF we answer THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.
The above is one among many representations of the Hero’s Journey ‘roadmap.’ The language and visuals differ from one to the other, however, the story steps remain essentially the same.
Most of us stay in The Ordinary World most of the time. Which is not to say that there are no fascinations possible in Ordinary World. On the contrary, life in Ordinary World is replete with thrills and chills. Alas, of a mostly material kind, they easily substitute for a mythic adventure.
Ordinary World feels safe. We have lots in common with our neighbors as we’ve contracted to accept the belief systems that define order in Ordinary World. We get what we know - dependably. A gated subdivision with neat, guarded borders. We become accustomed to predictable patterns in our unfolding lives. We know our way around. It feels comfortable and secure. Safe. That’s why we stay.
“Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense rests on a secure foundation: our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.” ~Daniel Kahneman
“Ignorance is bliss.” ~Anon
We don’t often contemplate “don’t know” beyond the amusement of puzzles or what to wear for a special event. Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, Christenings (babies or ships), BIG client sales meets, or a meeting of the Westminster Kennel Club.
Even to consider ‘not knowing’ evinces anxiety, a sense of danger. At the edge of our anxious feelings we bang hard into fear and loathing.
It takes a profound change in our life to spur us to hear THE CALL. A change that we cannot fail to notice or long ignore. The peril or promise is either immediately existential or strongly suggests imminent consequences of an existential kind.
This kind of change, in mythic storytelling terms, is called the ‘inciting incident.’ A disruption in the external world and/or in our psyches that jolts us into a risk taking level of curiosity.
Risk startles us. It sparks undeniable awareness, the kind of heightened curiosity that can land us outside of our known world. Curiosity that insists we let go of “already know” self to venture into a new and unknown self. Self and world are undivided phenomena.
“The higher self gets curious. The conditioned self gets defensive.” ~Layne & Paul Cutright
Curiosity presents variously, like milkshakes, curiosity comes in a variety of flavors. Take vanilla. (A wonderful flavor that unfortunately connotes pallid characteristics - unfair!)
Vanilla curiosity is common:
When will the 90” television go on sale?
Would ‘ya look at THAT bird, is it really an Orange Crested Doodle?
Is there actually nickel in a nickel?
I wholeheartedly, as I’ve suggested, endorse vanilla curiosity. I do, however, distinguish it from wholehearted curiosity. (See what I did there?)
Curiosity of the wholehearted kind has courage at its core. It is heart centered and engenders action that encourages engagement with and moves story.
Wholehearted curiosity leads to keen awareness and the capacity to live fully in action.
Wholehearted curiosity augurs change in each and all of us. We, together, can change the world with awareness and courage as inspiration.
HEARING THE CALL
Listen!
Most of us listen rarely and inattentively when we do. In daily conversation we move faster than meaning. We rehearse our preconceived answers and halt our half-hearted listening before our conversational partners have reached the end of what they intend to communicate, assuming they intend wholeheartedly. We slide past each other consistently for lack of listening.
Literal ‘listening’ deficits are symptomatic of a larger lacking in our capacity to pay attention on any level for fear that listening may challenge our solid sense of self.
“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness.” ~Rollo May (p. 100)
My lifelong friend, Edward Kearney, taught me much about listening. He, ironically, was for most of his years an incessant talker, often making little to no sense that I could discern. Sometimes he had something brilliant to say. I did my best to remain alert, though I regularly fell short. I’ve fallen asleep while ‘listening’ to him, awakening hours later to what felt like an uninterrupted continuation of his talk.
Later in life, after many twists and turns, Edward undertook a deep practice in body work. His genius was evident. He, with diligent practice, became a Master bodyworker, an adept improviser moving effortlessly through complex modalities.
The secret? Listening. He explained the he listened fully, with all of his senses and a clear intention to connect with whomever he worked, to heal and elevate consciousness for the benefit of all of us.
He lived in wholehearted curiosity.
His practice and study of bodywork in Thailand led inevitably to a resounding CALL TO ADVENTURE. Edward spent his last ten years in Burma as an ordained Buddhist monk, U Aung Ba.
Aung Ba Teaching in Chiang Mai
When at last he decided to disrobe (leave his monastery in Burma) and return to a lay practitioners life the U.S. he had a massive stroke on his returning flight.
I met him in Atlanta where he was evacuated to Grady Memorial Hospital. He was paralyzed on one side and globally aphasic (unable to speak). As his health proxy, I, together with the Neuro team, decided that the best course was Hospice.
There, for ten days, we sat together in silence. Listening wholeheartedly. Engaged in wholehearted curiosity. Living the story.
Simply notice the quality of your listening. Notice what you notice. Engage in unfolding story with wholehearted curiosity. Allow yourself the attention necessary to move with the story.
Smile. No need to force anything. When you notice your attention wandering, gently allow it to come back into the present story. Feel a sense of ease in living and listening now. Let yourself delight in simple listening with all your senses open.
If you wish, set aside a few moments near the end of your day for reflection on the process. Make notes if you like.
Share what you will in comments, so like Aung Ba, we heal and elevate consciousness for the benefit of us all. Courage begets courage.
Our Curiosity and Imagination are our great, good friends, as they point us always in the direction of courage and story.
I’ve lived it. Dubin was a mentor to me in my early to mid-20s, and helped me find the courage to leave my familiar life in San Francisco behind to explore a new set of possibilities in New York. I was 26 years old, jumped in a car, and drove east. It was one of the best decisions I ever made
I learned so much from just the decision to say YES, and my life has been enriched by the new people and circumstances I’ve encountered. My story expanded in ways I would never have imagined.
Fear will break you; courage and curiosity will guide you. Step into story, and allow your imagination to free you to live life alive
This one is Elixer.. So much to contemplate... Bravery made simple. Silence.. Reverberating silence... A roadmap for the buried treasure within... Blessings of Love.. In sacred silence with your dear friend 🙏💕Beautiful Souls 🙏💕Thank you once more, G. S. 💕
This post is special. Thank you, Dubin.
Our Curiosity and Imagination are our great, good friends, as they point us always in the direction of courage and story.
I’ve lived it. Dubin was a mentor to me in my early to mid-20s, and helped me find the courage to leave my familiar life in San Francisco behind to explore a new set of possibilities in New York. I was 26 years old, jumped in a car, and drove east. It was one of the best decisions I ever made
I learned so much from just the decision to say YES, and my life has been enriched by the new people and circumstances I’ve encountered. My story expanded in ways I would never have imagined.
Fear will break you; courage and curiosity will guide you. Step into story, and allow your imagination to free you to live life alive
❤️🙏💥
This one is Elixer.. So much to contemplate... Bravery made simple. Silence.. Reverberating silence... A roadmap for the buried treasure within... Blessings of Love.. In sacred silence with your dear friend 🙏💕Beautiful Souls 🙏💕Thank you once more, G. S. 💕