Dell on Campbell & Tolle

My grand-daughter, Shelley, and her friends will be out here shortly for the weekend. Fine night for a sit around the bon fire. Most of her friends are regulars out here: have their own "flop spot", as Shelley says. The lake is like glass this evening and there's enough of a breeze to keep the bugs at bay.

Excuse me if I just give you a head's up on the situation with my Shelley. Because I took her in with me as a teen, after that business with her mother's boyfriend, there were some who thought I rescued her: it is exactly the other way around. She opened my eyes to so many things over the years and brought vigor to an age I wasn't particularly looking forward to reaching. One thing in particular she brought me gave me a sense of hope for the future like nothing else had done for years.

After I had my fill of organized religion, I used to wonder how the next generation's children would be able to find the way to any sort of spiritual truth. To my way of thinking the only good thing about organized religion is it provides a context and symbols, as old as humanity, that satisfy certain human longings.

For those of you too young to remember, PBS had a series back in 1988, The Power of Myth : Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers. Hugely successful, the six part series preceded the book by the same name and is still available on VHS. The book is beautiful with illustrations and art history accompanying the various subjects discussed in the series. Some might know his bookThe Hero with a Thousand Faces from university reading lists but it is this book, based on the PBS series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth  that I keep going back to time and again. Campbell was pointing the way to finding your bliss  as he called it.

I had to wait another twenty-five years to read a book as illuminating. Shelley brought it out to me with the advice : don't start reading it at night, Grampa.

"That good, huh?" and she was right.

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose  by Eckhart Tolle. Apparently, it's a huge success. I'm not one bit surprised. People search for the purpose of their lives; they are seeking the bliss Campbell was talking about, found in the symbols and myths that abound through human history.

Do you recall the story of Jesus and the woman he met at the well? Personally, I am convinced this woman would have been labelled Borderline Personality Disorder if she were alive today, but that's not why I mention that story. My point is Jesus gave her good advice, and to my way of thinking it's pretty much the same advice Eckhart Tolle has for his readers. The truth isn't here or there, it's inside of us.

Our truth is revealed to us and each man's truth is as unique as the man himself. Jesus' teaching and other great writings are as relevant today as when first written. To find your own bliss you just need to have an  awakening.

I'm hoping to get into this topic some more tomorrow. Right now I've got to skee-daddle and put some liquids to chill before Shelley, Dorg and Co. arrive.