Another night of studying late. You think I would have learned better at my late age.
I have not.
Looking over my notes for Myth and Ritual, an upper level English class, I found a page from one of my notebooks loosely crammed inside my canvas backpack. The page had torn from it’s tablet anchor and was crumpled and bent at the bottom of the bag.
On this page was a note, three words long, that I had written to myself only weeks ago. The words were, “Follow your bliss.”
Now I know this note was important to me because I had drawn an irregular rectangle around it. This is my way of denoting important things on paper. Because of this, I even remember where the quote came from.
We were watching one of the many PBS documentary-like programs on Joseph Campbell. Campbell, if you recall, was one of the main influences on Mr George Lucas’ Star Wars movies. The series was often dry and caused my mind to wander to better places more often than not, but this one time I actually heard what the man was saying.
“Follow your bliss,” said Campbell, “and it’s almost like you get helping hands to push you along your path.”
At least that’s how I remember his quote.
Just this summer I decided to follow my bliss academically and it is almost as if these “helping hands” are all about me. Gently guiding me to the calm places, the easy places, and making sure that I learn what I need to know.
Before I made my landmark personal decision, these same hands were pushing me into trains or slapping me under buses. So I’m guessing that the hands don’t know sign language else they would have told I was on the wrong path in a more reasonable fashion.
I’m not saying that I agree with all of Campbell’s views. Nor do I think there are physical invisible appendages that know what’s best for my life or anyone else’s.
That would be crazy talk.
I only know that what I heard that day rang true. So I keep it safely tucked away in a well lit corner of my mind.
So here I sit. Hastily typing up study sheets and writing a research paper in my head and I’m not worried. I know it will get done and by this time tomorrow I’ll most likely be awake because I fell asleep as soon as class is finished and I make it back to my nice, soothing bed..
This “not worrying” thing is new to me. I’m not sure if it’s a sagacious calm or simply ignorance of the situation.
I’ll choose the former.
