[Stephen Gerringer]

That’s a potent dream, Esther!

Joseph Campbell has popped into my dreams on a few occasions. One, about a quarter century ago, he was driving a beat-up pick-up, backing it down a long set of cement steps somewhere – both he and the truck looked a bit worse for wear. I stepped up to help and comfort him, and so made him a salad, which improved his demeanor.

Not long after that, through a serendipitous set of circumstances I found myself working with the Joseph Campbell Foundation. One evening dining with colleagues I shared that dream with Lynne Kaufman, who was close to Campbell. She was amused, noting that, at least in waking life, Joe never ever ate a salad – perhaps his Irish meat-and-potatoes (and good scotch) background.

Though my work at JCF has often involved taking care of the “salad fixings,” so to speak, I do prefer the tenor and tone of your dream. I really like the accent on that YES!  Campbell very much subscribed to Nietzsche’s maxim about “saying Yea” to life – and he also really loved that last chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, where Molly Bloom’s reverie has her saying yes, yes, yes throughout, ending with that final resounding YES!