Bliss, etc.

Joseph Campbell formulated what became his most quoted dictum, "Follow your bliss" in the decade before his death. Join this conversation to explore this idea and share stories.

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CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

:arrow:
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

:roll:
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

I have re-read my last post, and only one thing has changed. Now, I am hoping Trump gets in and does so much damage that the people of this country begin to understand that we are at a crossroads, and only visionary systemic improvement will suffice.

As for me, I know I possess all the resources I need to create something real, something good. What I do not know is what that something will be. The uncertainty is gradually giving way to possibility, but there are no assurances.

There is work to be completed. There are tasks to finish, difficulties to be overcome, challenges to face, and a path that remains dark. I'm so glad for all of it. I am feeling capable and inside a place where everyone is part of the whole.

It's a good day. Trump is a commerce freak. If the consumer demands change, he will make it happen. Are we the consumers whom he will feel compelled to satisfy? I wonder.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Roncooper
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Post by Roncooper »

I agree that Trump would make things worse and increase suffering. It is just that I don't think we need more.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. -Isaac Newton

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

I don't know if New Mexico will make it possible for me to run for governor in 2018, but if we made it happen, I would like to be able to run for president after that. Suffering under Trump might pave the way for an outsider like me. We survived Reagan and Bush. I am confident we can use the Trump presidency to make my ideas look pretty good by comparison, especially if we pull off something wonderful in the Land of Enchantment. Of course, I have a lot to do to meet everyone halfway, but I'm making my lists of things to do, and I have ideas for how to function well in spite of a lack of easy money.

There is hope while I still have my health. It is too soon to give up.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Carmela in 2020.
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Preposterous!

:roll:
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

There is a disconnect between what I want to believe about my Self and what my father repeatedly told me about myself (that I am ugly and stupid). How I feel about the way I turned out as a human being is a mix of what he never stopped repeating in words and what Campbell taught everyone through his thoroughly accessible words.

Indeed, if I were truly ugly, I would be that, inside and out, all the time. I would not simply look rather plain and average, which is my lot in life, but I would have a hideously repulsive nature that would send others away screaming and frighten most small creatures. Roaches seem to have a special attachment to me, and it has always been a source of comfort.

Perhaps I want to run for high office and lose big-time in order to prove, once and for all, that my beloved and unpleasable father was right after all. Truly, I am ugly and stupid, Dad! Here is the vote count. Here is the proof we have been seeking all these years. Here is the evidence for the truth of your astutely accurate paternal Republican Roman Catholic observation. I am nothing. I am ugly. I am stupid. The deepest truth of it is completely internalized and everyone knows this. That is why I would not be hired, not paid well, not invited to speak, not supported with fat campaign coffers and winning numbers of votes.

A high intelligence quotient number on tests and a generally good performance in school, professional talent and competence in the practical application of compassionate work would not ever erase the odor of mistakes and misunderstandings so egregious as to create the overwhelmingly strong impression that I am essentially without a truly clever bone in my body. It is clear that father knew best, and I should have spent my entire life in pursuit of the impossible, because that is what stupid does. I would never please a man, because ugly women are not pleasing. Being alone is all the proof we need to confirm the paternal judgment that pervaded every hour of every day.

Nothing.

Ugly.

Stupid.

So true and yet I simply don't feel it. Sorry, Dad. I feel just fine. I am such a student of Campbell. The good professor would have laughed with me about the worthlessness of a political life. Joe would have said: Smart enough. Good enough. Money-puffed votes are not the best measure of how one looks or how well one does.

I am not everything to everybody and that's okay. I'm me. The real deal. That's enough for joy, for eating chile with beans and loving the fact that I have become a welfare dependent child of the County Welfare Director. Hah! My life turned out to be ordinary, and being overweight just confirms a lack of will power and moral fiber. Dad's disapproval only sweetens the flavor of the whole enchilada, with melted cheese on top.

-- Goofy old lady who wears funky hats and old blue jeans. A stupid and ugly nothing who is laughing all the way to the internet forum of her choice, ignored and judged wanting by some of the finest minds on the planet. What a sight she is for those who appreciate the awesome wonder of abject stupidity and ugliness and the great and powerful nothingness of disappointment and poverty and obscurity and inadequacy and eccentric, plain old dumb luck.

Praise the Lord and pass the green salsa, please. I think I feel a burrito fiesta happening down there where care dare become a plain old southwestern SBD contributing my daily ounces of methane to further pollute the environment.

And on that higher order of contemplative irrationality, I take my humble leave on this auspicious day......

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Roncooper
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Post by Roncooper »

My father-in-law treated my wife the same way. She got away from the jerk as quickly as she could.

That early treatment has shaped her self image to this day. Even after she slaughters me in Words with Friends.

It is the old patriarchal stupidity.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. -Isaac Newton

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

It's ironic that someone with self esteem vulnerabilities like mine would believe as I do that with support, it can all turn around. I'm working on it.

"It ain't over til it's over."

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

JamesN.
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Post by JamesN. »

CarmelaBear wrote:It's ironic that someone with self esteem vulnerabilities like mine would believe as I do that with support, it can all turn around. I'm working on it.

"It ain't over til it's over."

~
Carmela that is very nicely put and something that indeed represents a major later life challenge for all of us; although it may be somewhat difficult to get a handle on this concept within one's own life. Joseph points out that one of the important tasks that Jung's work deals with in the second half of life is concerned with exactly that; (self esteem) and how we see ourselves in relation to who we "really" are; not the issues that are related to the "Persona" or the masks that society asks us to wear. This has a great deal to do with our perception and image of how we visualize our personal self worth and it is ("not") how we should see ourselves. (The sum total of the individual is so much more than what they do or the mask they wear or the role that they are playing at any given moment.) And our culture here in the west puts a tremendous emphasis on this aspect. Our job or career; how successful our achievements are within society's estimation; and indeed the many roles we are called to perform such as parents or spouses for instance all have a part in this timeless dance or "play on life's stage" that we are called to participate in so that it can be very difficult to separate the costume of one's self image from the unique individual that is our true self and that beckons to us to become from inside our own deepest part.

This particular clip has been very helpful for me and perhaps you may find it of interest as well.
:)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_osnFRVPUk
What do I know? - Michael de Montaigne

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