“What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else.” –Joseph Campbell
This experience comes to each of us, I think, when we step forward on the highway of our life without worrying about where others are going or what others will say about where we are going–assuming we have a destination.
We can share what we know with others, of course, but cautiously, lest they take it as their own gospel. The only path we know is our own. We must have passion for it. But we cannot preach it so strongly that we influence others to copy our experience rather than discovering their own.
The hero on the path blazes his own trail, but never for selfish reasons. He is changed by the joys and perils of the journey. The “road” is a handy metaphor. But we really don’t want wide highways as much as we want an absence of them. Wide highways tell us where others have gone, while deep forests, uncharted waters and endless prairies open up an infinite number of unique possibilities for each of us.
You’ve heard the phrase, “Smooth seas don’t make good sailors.” I used a variant of this in my hero path novel The Sun Singer: “Small hills don’t make good mountain climbers.” Trials and tribulations bring us more opportunities for growth than easy walking. Couch potatoes usually don’t learn much.
The world benefits from the treasures the hero brings back home. S/he is not on the journey for self alone, but for everyone who comes into his or her sphere of friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and fellow seekers. We seek a journey that is ours and we seek a goal that is for everyone else.
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If you are interested in the concepts of the hero path, a good place to start looking is the Joseph Campbell Foundation. The foundation has active discussion forums and a lot of source material in addition to Campbell’s books.
Join us here on the Round Table when author Pat Bertram stops by on October 19th and 20th to talk about her new novel Daughter Am I which contains a strong quest story.
Malcolm's Round Table 
I often wonder exactly what the spark is that causes a person to venture on the path and why so few really do.
I don’t know, Montucky, whether the excuse is laziness or fear. But what a boring way to spend one’s time. Your path, wherever else it may be taking you, is certainly providing us a lot of wonderful photographs on Montana Outdoors that interpret wilderness and wild critters.
Malcolm