"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis for man's desire to understand."
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Writer/philosopher Sam Keen in his best-selling book, Fire
in the Belly, advised that today’s men (not women) needed to go on a sacred
quest to discover the fire in their bellies that “ignites the flame in their
hearts.” He called this quest the “heroic journey” – much the same as Joseph
Campbell described in “The Power of Myth.” Keen may not have intended the book
for women as it is subtitled “On Being a Man,” but I loved it so much and my
own copies became so dog-eared from re-reading that I’m on my fourth copy of it
and cherish it above most of my books. The author speaks of today’s hero as being
almost opposite in character from our traditional heroes whom we have imagined “larger
than life.” Today, our heroes may remain off the radar because the foundation
for their character is humility and modesty rather than standing apart and above
other men.
I think the quest he describes is universal and I know his
description of it was the first step on my own sacred quest which has led me
inevitably to art and poetry to express the mystery and wonder I experience
each step of the way. To successfully complete the hero’s journey, Keen says we
must possess ten heroic virtues and the first he talks about is wonder. That
was enough to capture my heart. He went
on to share a poem he’d written about his father whom he called the great exemplar
of wonder and he concludes the poem with this amazing line of tribute to a
father who taught him much about the hero’s quest – “In his ambiance, I learned
that it is a good thing to take time to wonder.” Every heroic journey must
begin with a renewed sense wonder – ours too. Have you taken the time lately to
observe the caution to “Stop, Look and Listen?” Stop because our eyes need time
to see what is beautiful in all around us, look with wonder, and listen in awe
to the mystery that is life. And mystery remains for me one of the things that
inspires my creativity the most.
Mystery
© Lianne Schneider -
2011
Among the artists who make me stand in awe and delve into
the mystery is Anne (Nancy) Lacy whose digital art is unlike any other and
whose series “Passages to the Soul” left me awestruck and deeply captivated.
There are so many whose photographs cause me to stop, whose paintings make look,
and whose digital creations evoke wonder expressed only where my heart can
listen for it, that I can only hope to scratch the surface by mentioning them
here and there.
[Addendum: Please let me know if you are unable to leave a
comment. I understand that you must be logged in to your Google + account to do
so. If need be, I’ll change my settings but that would mean that I’ll lose all
the beautiful comments on previous blogs when I disable that.]
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