Reading my horoscope in the local free paper, the writer advises "follow your bliss and the money will come."
If you have studied the Heroes' Journey you are probably aware of Joseph Campbell's dictum to "follow your bliss." This idea was embraced by the culture in the 1980's following the popular series of interviews filmed just before Campbell's death.
From 1986 to 1996 I followed my bliss into storytelling and prospered, working for The Lincoln Center, The LA Music Center, the Disney Company and being featured many times at The National Storytelling Festival. The past decade, however, has been a constant toss of the dice as the former prosperity parts from the path of bliss. I am now convinced that the cultural moment was right for Campbell's dictum in the 1980s but the self-centered pursuit of bliss is not what the present moment wants. Today the determinations of value are Relevence, Utility, and Service. If you fail to meet these criteria, following your bliss may lead into a folly of blindness.
What do you think?
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I think that storytelling has always been about service. Ruth Sawyer, in "The Way of the Storyteller," talks about storytelling as a mission...as a spiritual experience. You, David, even state that in your Aesop's fable about the Ants and the Grasshopper....that we must feed our souls. I just think the descriptors "relevance, utility, and service" are new, and that they are the necessary context and "buzz words" for continued prosperity. I also think it is up to us to create the context rather than search for it. by the way, I'm clinging to "The Artist's Way" as a context for myself, rather than blindly trusting the process.
ReplyDeleteI also think 5:47 am is entirely too early for such intellectual pursuits....