The Power of Myth - Bill Moyers [92]
MOYERS: You say the time comes. How does a child know when his time has come? In ancient societies, the boy, for example, went through a ritual which told him the time had come. He knew that he was no longer a child and that he had to put off the influences of others and stand on his own. We don’t have such a clear moment or an obvious ritual in our society that says to my son, “You are a man.” Where is the passage today?
CAMPBELL: I don’t have the answer. I figure you must leave it up to the boy to know when he has got his power. A baby bird knows when it can fly. We have a couple of birds’ nests right near where we have breakfast in the morning, and we have seen several little families launched. These little things don’t make a mistake. They stay on the branch until they know how to fly, and then they fly. I think somehow, inside, a person knows this.
I can give you examples from what I know of students in art studios. There comes a moment when they have learned what the artist can teach them. They have assimilated the craft, and they are ready for their own flight. Some of the artists allow their students to do that. They expect the student to fly off. Others want to establish a school, and the student finds he has got to be nasty to the teacher, or to say bad things about him, in order to get his own flight. But that is the teacher’s own fault. He ought to have known it was time for the student to fly. The students I know, the ones who are really valid as students, know when it is time to push off.
MOYERS: There is an old prayer that says, “Lord, teach us when to let go.” All of us have to know that, don’t we?
CAMPBELL: That’s the big problem of the parent. Being a parent is one of the most demanding careers I know. When I think what my father and mother gave up of themselves to launch their family—well, I really appreciate that.
My father was a businessman, and, of course, he would have been very happy to have his son go into business with him and take it on. In fact, I did go into business with Dad for a couple of months, and then I thought, “Geez, I can’t do this.” And he let me go. There is that testing time in your life when you have got to test yourself out to your own flight.
MOYERS: Myths used to help us know when to let go.
CAMPBELL: Myths formulate things for you. They say, for example, that you have to become an adult at a particular age. The age might be a good average age for that to happen—but actually, in the individual life, it differs greatly. Some people are late bloomers and come to particular stages at a relatively late age. You have to have a feeling for where you are. You’ve got only one life to live, and you don’t have to live it for six people. Pay attention to it.
MOYERS: What about happiness? If I’m a young person and I want to be happy, what do myths tell me about happiness?
CAMPBELL: The way to find out about your happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you really are happy—not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what I call “following your bliss.”
MOYERS: But how does mythology tell you about what makes you happy?
CAMPBELL: It won’t tell you what makes you happy, but it will tell you what happens when you begin to follow your happiness, what the obstacles are that you’re going to run into.
For example, there’s a motif in American Indian stories that I call “the refusal of suitors.” There’s a young girl, beautiful, charming, and the young men invite her to marriage. “No, no, no,” she says, “there’s nobody around good enough for me.” So a serpent comes, or, if it’s a boy who won’t have anything to do with girls, the serpent queen of a great lake might come. As soon as you have refused the suitors, you have elevated yourself