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As we go through life we are faced with situations that may not be fun or easy.  It is in ourselves that we must look to decide if we feel we are up for taking on responsibilities or letting someone else do them for us.  This class has been all about finding out who we are and how and why some people accept the call to adventure and others don’t. It has been about taking what you know and comparing it to things that you may not know. This class has touched base with literature from the past and the present all to show that no matter what era you are in life stories seem to have the same basic plot. It is our destiny to do things in life and sometimes you may never find out why. I am going to talk about some of the things that we have went over during the class using compare and contrast as well as talk about my opinion on some of the religious, and other topics that are discussed.

The first thing that I want to compare is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and Simba from The Lion King.  In both stories, the main character is upset with the situation that they are in with their home life. Each of them is faced with a journey at the very beginning and both accept the call to adventure. I think it is ironic how they both have these people with them that are there to help throughout the journey. Simba meats Timon and Pumbaa who change his philosophy with a little saying, “hakuna matata,” it means no worries.  He uses this saying to forget about the death of his father and the anger of being left.  In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion.  They all teach her valuable lessons about her life and her family. In both movies the people that they meet along their journey play a key role in the person they become.  Without these people who knows where they would end up.

Another aspect of the film that is similar in the end is the unity that they come to.  Both characters come to a realization that they need to go back home and be with their loved ones. For samba he realizes this when Nola comes to find him in the jungle. At first he is hesitant to come back because he says that he loves it where he is and that he has no need to go back to the pride, but then he does realize his loved ones need him. For Dorothy it is when the Wizard’s balloon takes off without her and the Good Witch tells her that she had the power to go home the entire time, she just needed to realize that she had all she needed.  Simba goes back to his pride and becomes King of the Jungle, and Dorothy goes back home and appreciates her family.  This is a common theme throughout man stories when there is conflict, because no one really wants to see a story that doesn’t end in a good way. I think that if a movie ended without a happy feeling then it would do very badly with the viewers.

One thing that I also want to talk about is from Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth.  In the book Campbell states, “Heaven and hell are within us, and all the gods are within us.” By this he is trying to say that we create these images and beliefs ourselves, that all Gods are just magnified dreams. I couldn’t disagree more with what Campbell is saying here.  If you are raised with a certain religion that does not mean that since it has been put in your head that this is what you are going to be practicing for the rest of your life.  The only true way that you can find yourself with Jesus is to confess that he is your savior.  It has nothing to do with what you were raised up with in your head.  I do not feel that in any way shape or form is Buddha or any of the other Gods inside me in any way. I think that religion is for some people just way to give themselves meaning in life. For others it is simply a thing that they were brought up doing, but for the true believers it is about knowing that God gave his only son to die for us so that we can live forever in his kingdom.

Something that I found interesting about the religion Campbell talks about is when he talks about marriage.  He tells us how he believes that most people have lost a sense of what marriage really means today. He thinks that the reason so many marriages fail today is because we have lost a sense of what marriage truly is, and I could not agree more. Campbell states, “When people get married because they think it’s a long-time love affair, they’ll be divorced very soon, because all love affairs end in disappointment. But marriage is recognition of a spiritual identity.” As we look in our society today there are many marriages that happen without even having a certain religion. How can you have spiritual identity without having something that you believe in? In the old days when you went to a church to get married it involved a spiritual moment of becoming one. Now anymore it seems like most people only get married in a church because that is the way most people do it. I strongly feel that we have all lost the true meaning of becoming married, thus resulting in the high rate of divorce. Campbell goes on to say, “The marriage means the two that are one, the two become one flesh.” I think that most people have lost touch with this and think that they can continue to be two separate people when they are married. It doesn’t work like that when you are a family.  A family is suppose to work together as a team, without that then you have conflicting situations that just cause stress and anger with your loved ones. When you go to church you are not all trying to have a service the way you want it, but instead you are all together as one there to worship and praise god. This is the same unity that people must have when they are married.

In Carol Pearson’s Awakening the Heroes Within, there is an Archetype test in the back of the book that we took. It consisted of seventy-two questions about things that could be occurring in our life. After you answer all the questions and tallied up your scores, you could put your numbers into a chart that showed you your most dominant archetypes. The results from this test were very surprising to me. One of my highest scores was Creator. At first I couldn’t figure out why this would be, but then as I continued to read about the creator archetype I realized that this may actually be very true. The book states “When we discover or give birth to our true Selves, the Creator also comes into our lives. When we become aware of our connection with the creative source of the universe, we also begin to become aware of our part in creation.” It took me a while to make the connection of this to my life but I think I have finally figured it out. In the past year I have traveled around the world with my church group to help those less fortunate. When I was in Jamaica, we worked at a Christian Deaf school. The entire time that I was there I couldn’t get enough of spending time with the children. It was so amazing to me that these kids, who had so little, and couldn’t even speak without sign, were still so happy. When I returned home I realized that I needed to change my career path in the direction of Deaf Education. So I transferred schools and began my journey into the field of Deaf Education. I think that this is when the creator in my life truly came out. I think that this was calling in life and this is my part in creation. I was supposed to go on that trip and meet those kids so that I can be in the place to work with them as a teacher. The book talks about how the Creator is able to be more connected with their inner sole and indentify their true meaning. In the book it says,”Shirley Luthman and Hugh Prather, for example, say that each of us has the potential to create our own life,” I think that I never really had lived my own life until I went off the beaten path and discovered this great language. This truly is the moment that I was connected with my inner soul.

Another archetype that I was surprised about was the Lover. It also was one of my higher scores, and not that I don’t think that I have love in my life, but that some of the traits I don’t think I have. The book states that as a Lover you seek an intimate relationship throughout your life, starting with your parents and then into adulthood with a partner. I however have not really been in many relationships through my adult life and really have no desire to be in one in the near future. I have always seemed to find myself as an independent person that doesn’t necessarily need someone there in my life that I can love. I don’t have a problem with being in love, in fact if it happens I will embrace it, but I am not out there looking for it. I just think that it came out this way because I care about people being happy. I would much rather go out of my way to make others happy before myself. For me it isn’t about the good things you get for yourself or the good times that you get, but the good times that you give people. Seeing them happy is the greatest gift you could ever give yourself.

All in all this class is about truth and mystery all in the same breath. I have learned so much about myself and the fact that we are all a little bit of different characteristics. I hope to keep learning the different ways that we are all alike and how we each encounter a journey of some sort during our lives.