Heroes and Mystics 2024

I think that the journey of my mom is one that relates to a lot that we talked about in class. My mom came from a family that had its own set of issues. She went to therapy as a child to deal with these things but I see that they still affect her to this day. One day when she was a kid and was going through all of these things, she called up her local church and asked to get confirmed. Since then, she has been a practicing Catholic and has raised 6b christian kids. What a powerful lesson that is, to cease our own story and to create the life that we want to live. Her journey inspires me to listen to my own interior self when going on my journey. 

  When we think of a journey, it's frequently depicted crossing stormy seas, oftentimes in a sailboat. For me, that depiction is nothing short of accurate. I recently joined the CNU sailing team, for no reason other than to try something new, and it has been the best decision that I have made. Joining the sailing team will be one of the greatest markers in the journey that I tell my kids about. I have learned discipline and grit and how to be a teammate, all in one semester. I get up early in the morning to work out with the team not out of fear of punishment, or fear of my body looking a certain way, but for different reasons. I value my own words that told me to wake up the night before, I love my teammates and coaches so I will show up for them, and I want the future of CNU sailing to be even greater than it has been for me.

Upon reflecting on the journey of finding oneself I often go back to my injuries that I suffered from in highschool. With modern medicine I am so blessed that there are such minimal effects that I currently feel, but I definitely think that those were formative times for me in my growth as a person. I think that we all naturally cling to the things that we are good at to define ourselves and I definitely did that in highschool. When I saw myself as nothing more than an athlete, and then suddenly I couldn’t even walk for months… that was pretty devastating to me. All that being said, I believe those years were part of the journey to the person I am now. When someone asks me the things that I am good at or love about myself, athleticism is not the first thing anymore, rather its interior qualities such as loyalty and creativity.

  The urge to go on a run away journey has been STRONG recently. I have always wanted to study abroad, but it's honestly a really long and tedious process. There is a lot of paperwork and meetings and planning. I can be quite the procrastinator, so getting all of this done has been quite the challenge, BUT I am happy to say that I will be going to Lima, Peru this summer. Lima has become so much more than a future service learning trip for me. When I get worried about finals or get sad that I don't have much time to read my books, I think about Peru. Peru is so symbolic to me of going on a journey to find myself. I think of the quote from Gandhi “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” and I hope that that will be me this summer. 

  Recently someone asked me to rank my nicknames that people call me and that question really got me thinking. I immediately went to rank “gabby” as number 1 because it is what most people call me. Is that really my favorite though? I’m not even sure I know the answer to that. I love when people that I am getting closer to try to make their own variations- gab, gabs, gangster, or even the more recent “gabatron”. It feels so special when people try to make a name for you on their own. I think that our names hold so much deep meaning; it’s the verbalization of who we are to other people and they can mean so many things. I do love my name, and I feel a great deal of love for “gabby” and all its variations.

Another one of the many books that I am simultaneously reading with other books that I am really excited about is The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael Alan Singer. Although I am not very far in the novel, I think that the first bit that I have read is already so rich and ties in well to Somewhere I Have Never Traveled because of the idea of the sense of self. Both works mention the idea that we as humans are always trying to grapple with our sense of selves. I think that it is a really interesting concept and my philosophy, perhaps it's just the easy out, is that our brains were simply not created to be able to comprehend things outside of our world. I think it's a great thing to try but I believe that there is so much more knowledge that we cannot know.

One of the many books that I am reading currently is a novel called “He gets us” and it is about asking modern day questions and applying them to Jesus. I chose to read this book because I follow the “He gets us” account on instagram. The book also includes excerpts from Max Lucado, who I read as a child and still really enjoy to this day. The journey of Jesus Christ is the story arch that we can see in any famous movie or literature- Star wars, the classics, disney movies, children’s books, any story where there is a sacrificial hero. For this reason I have found it really fascinating to read about Jesus’ story through a modern lens, because to me His story was the first and greatest hero’s journey.

  I have not finished, but I have been working on reading “Surprised by Joy” by CS Lewis for a long time now. Something about me is that I LOVE CS Lewis. I his writing style- he is witty, logical, and to the point but also simultaneously is gentle and understanding of the human condition. Although I have not finished the novel yet, its whole purpose is certainly fitting to the idea of the interior journey. In the novel, Lewis describes his whole life in such great detail that we are even able to know about the toys he played with as a kid and his primary school teachers and then hear about his conversion story from atheist to anglican. To hear about how he used his imagination as a child was particularly fascinating because it gives the reader insight into how he was able to grasp for outside of his reality (like the cosmos) and then see how that later translated into his spiritual life. 

In my honors seminar from last semester, Naturalism Across Disciplines, we spoke a lot about how the naturalistic point of view can be found in lots of different things, from literature to movies. One of the books that we read was called Therese Raquin by Emelie Zola and it focused on the namesake of the book, Therese. She was a prostitute in old France and it was a really interesting depiction of her life journey from start to finish. We saw that she started out as an innocent and pure little girl who lived in the countryside, but is then forced out of her home because she was pregnant and by the end of the book ends up dying due to her lifestyle. She definitely had a hero’s journey that was tragic and fitting of the naturalistic genre.

The theme of Emerging Adulthood is something that I have learned a lot about while at CNU. In my first semester, my honors seminar was titled “Emerging Adulthood” and was taught by Dr Michaela Meyer and it was awesome. In that class, as well as a couple of my current social work and psychology classes we read and talked about Jeffery Arnett’s work “Emerging Adulthood”. He was the first person to coin the term for this age group between adulthood and adolescence and I think that it was really important that he did. Certainly for me, this time in between adolescence and adulthood has been a uniquely great part of my interior journey. Having learned a lot about this age group and how it is its own specific time within our life journey and now having learned more about our interior life journeys has been really fascinating. 

It was really lovely to talk about the Iliad again after having read it in highschool. I think that through this class i was able to look at the story through a new lens. Most of the classics in my opinion, like the Iliad and the Odyssey, are the epitome of the hero’s journey but I have learned so much more about what these journeys mean through this class. For example, when Achilles journeys to the underworld we can view this as part of his self discovery journey. When he is able to see that he will die, it helps him to better understand himself and his fleeting journey. I think that this is so applicable to our lives too; it's things like funerals or unexpected deaths that help us to understand our own journey by revealing that it is shorter than we think. 

In Somewhere I have never Traveled, there was so much valuable information only within the first page. It explains that we can't just be whoever we want to be because the perception of ourselves from the people around us helps to make us who we are. It also touches on our inner darkness that makes up who we are inside. It is certainly interesting to think about how we have this inner person inside us, that we partially control/shape and partially don't, but this cannot change the way that people outside perceive us. They are going to create a version of ourselves in their own head that we can only influence to a certain degree. 

I n the movie, Cold Fever , it was a really interesting depiction of the hero's journey because it showed the protagonist being reluctant to the journey. I think we more often than not see a hero who is motivated and willing to go on their journey, however we see the contrary in this movie. It is also notable that the viewer saw the icelandic wilderness. This emphasizes the idea that there was no feeling of human presence and that he was on this journey alone, bringing light on the fact that it was an interior journey more than anything.

In Star Trek, we were able to see the importance of communication. It was fascinating to see how a language barrier can be so detrimental to the success of civilizations. Seeing the way that the two leaders were unable to understand each other felt symbolic of how there is so often a language barrier for people who do not speak English in the United states. I have seen this in my own volunteering community, where some friends of mine work with immigrants, and it makes it very difficult to fill out the paperwork when there is no one who speaks the same language as the clients. 

  In The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, on page 3 he says “Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation” (Page 3). This quote caused me to ponder about, as we discussed in class, what he means by the ‘cosmos’ and how ‘myth’ relates to it. If myth and imagination are how the human intellect attempts to grasp at the unreal, then it makes sense that this would be the manner in which the cosmos are able to ‘pour’ into our reality. This would make sense because the word cosmos, from my understanding, refers to what we cannot grasp or understand because it is outside of our reality. 

 1. Appreciate the journey of your life. Even the times that seems transitional are so important. It is important to live in the moment instead of constantly looking forward to the next goal or phase in your life. 2. Myths and story telling allow us to recognize the order in the universe. Myth carry with them cultural identities that demonstrate the uniqueness of each culture. Yet, they also indicate a human desire to capture our existence in stories.  3. Truth. Truth is merely a mirror that reflects reality. It is not reality itself. The closer we get the truth, the more difficult it becomes to explain which is why we often refy on myths or story telling. 4. Liminal spaces allow us to explore who we are but they also allow others to influence how we see ourselves.  5. Nature is often a considered a place. However, nature is all around us. Nature is an idea, a product of culture.  6. Journeying away from home shows you where home is.  7. Journeying is beautiful ...

Over spring break I read the novel by Anthony Doerr called "All the Light We Cannot See" that follows a blind French girl and German soldier during World War II. Each chapter alternates perspectives between the two protagonists. The trajectory of their lives seem to be moving in completely opposite directions, but Doerr carefully weaves the two together. I won't get into it too much in case anyone still wants to read it. However, it reminds me of the story Dr Redick shared on the last day of class about his friend he met on the camino and how he felt God had placed him there in that moment. These types of stories give me a deeper appreciation for each person in my life. The chance that any of us exist is so small. Then the fact that we exist in the same place at the same time is even more rare. I don't believe any of this is a coincidence. Each person in our life is there for a reason. 

 For my final paper, I also read an article by Peter Freese titled " The ‘Journey of Life’ in American Fiction". Freese argues that the act of journeying is natural for human beings as it fulfills an innate curiosity. I think think this is compelling argument because as we mature, we often go through a phase where to desire to travel is heightened. I think this could be an explanation for why many young adults decide to attend college away from home. Our college experience fulfills a desire to journey, physically, but also mentally and emotionally. In gaining an education, we explore an intellectual landscape. By growing up, navigating conflict, and meeting new friends, we journey emotionally and psychologically.

When writing my final paper, I read an article titled "Terror and the Sublime" which discussed how the sublime can bring a kind of terror because it forces us to recognize how small we are. I think its interesting that today we often avoid fear at all costs. We create a safe life and don't often leave our comfort zones. Our homes protect us from the environment, our showers are warm, and our air conditioning/ heat regulate our temperature. Many of us will avoid the outdoors because it is uncomfortable or dirty but in reality staying indoors or in our urban setting prevents us from ever truly living. Terror reminds us of our humanity. Terror keeps us humble.  It could be argued that a heathy amount of terror is necessary for a fulfilling life. 

 I had never seen an episode of Star Trek before the class periods in which we watched what I will call the "Darmok and Jalad" episode. Looking back on the many texts and artifacts we have made use of throughout the semester, there really is a great variety, from classical works like Plato's Symposium , to medieval ones such as St. Julian, to contemporary media like Star Trek and Wings of Desire . This episode of Star Trek, despite airing in 1991, relates all the way back to the Phoenicians in 800 BC, who provided the alphabet for the Greeks; before this, myths weren't communicated through writing. For the Tamarians, myths were communicated through metaphor in an imagistic sense, and communicated only orally, vastly different from humans. This also relates back to truth and reason coming from myth, as it did for Plato. Overall, this episode tied all these observations together in an entertaining way and was beneficial for my understanding of this section of the class...