[sunbug]

I loved this essay “What’s in a name?” Stephen Gerringer

thank you for this lovely piece on Joe Campbell!

It is true, the names of these works linger poetically in the mind and heart.

I returned to Campbell long after the first broadcast with Bill Moyers. At 10, though interested in the images, I was not ready for that “mythic journey.” Dance was calling me instead and as a tap dancer definitely have an appreciation of rhythm! But at 17, when The Power of Myth was re-broadcast…looked for as many Campbell books as I could find!

loved it! Also love poetry, reading, memorizing and writing since early childhood.

So this piece has a beautiful resonance!

It shows a beautiful balance between the small individual and the Greater Self and the Yin/Yang within each of Joe Campbell’s titles. The “many” and the Self are clearly shown as parts of a “whole,” touching on Universal Consciousness.

This balance imho would be wise and healthy to remember.

Have other thoughts on this but they may be better saved for another J. Campbell pg.

Though I see a few other posts touch on that as well.

Yet this was so inspiring, I did not feel like leaving the path just yet or wandering in the marshlands of another thought.

i have no wings and might bog down.

But back to the Gander (smile)

It reminds me of another book, “The Geese of Beaver Bog,” written by the naturalist and ornithologist, Bernd Heinrich. On the front is a photo of geese nesting on a lake in Vermont. That image feels very syncretic to this essay. Heinrich in a rougher Thoreau manner also encompasses poetry in his experience of nature both the beautiful and harsh.

We need the poetry. We need the myth…in that heart beat…in that rhythm.

Especially now.

It seems the quest of the individual soul is at stake.

This makes one think of the Bards and other story tellers who kept the traditions or passed down the tales.

Or the modern musician who can play and sing hundreds of songs…how memory is magically held through rhythm and cadence and music.

Thank You so much for this lovely essay!

p.s. love the image of Campbell in his Red VW “The Gander!”:-)