In life, perhaps in this moment, we are given an opportunity to listen. If we are still, we may actually hear what is calling to us. We have a choice at this time; “do I listen” or “do I move back into the familiar patterns of my life?” Do I answer the call and take the risk inherent in it’s promise - to change me and “riddle” me into being more fully who I am?
” Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests. Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and is meaningless – even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire of renown. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death: a labyrinth of cyclopean walls to hide from him his Minotaur. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.” (Campbell, 1949, p. 59)
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There is something nostalgically appealing about a call so primal that it drowns out all the rest. I wonder if that may be a bit of a throwback, though. Today I received as many calls as I had the werewithal to attend to- and there were many more than that coming in.
When I spent three months on the island of Crete (very near the labyrinth at Knossos– the Minoan labyrinth), I had a conversation with my parents, during which my dad said to me, “what if you get the call?” This was cited as a reason not to do this outlandish act that involved dropping out of school and priveledging a relationship with a person I had met only three months previously. I needed to answer, “I GOT the call, dad.” And then he probably would have been satisfied.