Heroes and Mystics 2026

  In our discussion in part surrounding artifacts, we talked about the poetic and the prosaic as modes of language/communication. The poetic is the natural, creative sense of language that we inherently experience as the first, primordial sense, whereas the prosaic concerns the empirical and exact form of explanation or definition; the prosaic comes from our experience of language as it has been constructed and formally used. These modes of thought, as language itself is a method for solidifying thought, can be connected to the two main ways that we communicate in the written word, namely, prose and poetry. However, these distinctions do not necessarily correlate, and an example of such non-relationship can be found in the Hebrew Bible. Books like Psalms and the Song of Solomon may be characterized as “pure poetry,” but many interpretations of the creation account provided in Genesis lend it a poetic interpretation, even though in its text it is a prose piece. The structure of th...

 My current work on the Theater CNU production of Gypsy has brought me further reflection on my previous journal entry. I've recognized a fault in the proverb of "Do whatever you want," that while obvious, merits explanation.  Rose in Gypsy has allowed her self-determined meaning, her all-encompassing dream of stardom to become a selfish obsession rather than a selfless one. In fact, she harms a lot of people. People are quite harmed. The beauty of the Hero's Journey is that it leaves one stripped of ego and self importance; however, clearly this selflessness is not a prerequisite to the realization of self-determination. Straightforward focus on a goal without consideration for the means and collateral is not a very enlightened way to conduct one's self.  Let's take that magical plane back to reality for a moment. You and I will never again exist in a primordial state. We do not straddle the line between the living and dead and we will not be overcoming our i...

We spoke in class today about what gives life meaning in the absence of culturally constructed meaning. Or, at the very least, it was hinted at in discussion and gracefully ignored. However, I feel very strongly on the subject and feel obligated to address it.  In the only useful reading presented to me thus far by the Leadership curriculum, Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" directly addresses how people find meaning in life. It is his conclusion that meaning, though the ultimate motivator in how we lead our lives, is entirely self prescribed. It is something we discover in response to the social world and culture (including religion) around us. Therefore, within the framework of this course, wherein a strict dichotomy exists between primordial inherent existence and our culturally built context, there cannot be inherent meaning to life. If, as Frankl asserts, life-meaning is a cultural construct, there fundamentally cannot be some grand overarching meaning o...

As a math major who wants to enroll in the MAT program to become a teacher, one of my required courses that I am currently taking is elementary geometry from advanced viewpoints. While this name seems complicated, this course is about non-Euclidian geometry—looking at geometry without the knowledge of Euclid’s postulates; everything that is covered in this course is without using previous knowledge of what I learned in my high school geometry class. My professor emphasizes hands-on experimentation that promotes adaptive thinking, especially since I have to change the way I have been thinking about geometry: adjusting my primordial experiences by looking at geometric elements in vicarious methods. The biggest talking point in my class right now is straight lines. Naturally, our primordial experiences of a straight line might include the edge of a ruler, lines on the road, or simply the shortest distance between two points. Additionally, in order to connect two points with a straight lin...

  In his book Heaven in Stone and Glass , Bishop Robert Barron looks to the gargoyles that surround cathedrals in the Gothic style as emblematic of a certain humor intended to refocus the person who views the cathedrals, cutting through the serious design of those churches and allowing the visitor to find time to laugh; as he mentions, G. K. Chesterton saw the core tenet of the Christian faith, that God took on human flesh, as the supreme jest or joke, in its absurdity thus being grasped on the human level by the one who contemplates the mystery. In a similar vein, the movie Cold Fever sees the protagonist encounter numerous absurd obstacles, like the American robber couple with sock puppets, in an attempt to perform the memorial rites for his parents, which is usually considered a serious or solemn duty; or, as another example, the protagonist himself points to the absurd as an outsider at the funerals Laura “collects” in Iceland. In all these circumstances, whether through arc...

  In his poem “Mythopoeia,” J. R. R. Tolkien attempts to provide his dear friend C. S. Lewis with a way to conceptualize the Christian faith as both myth and historical reality; this trend in thought or pattern of thinking clearly influenced Lewis’s “Myth Became Fact,” as it provides the necessary ideas which Lewis in that essay delineated. To me, however, the most interesting part of the poem has more to do with Tolkien’s understanding of the role of humanity; near the end of his work, he uses the phrasing “man, sub-creator,” and this gives great perspective to what influenced both Tolkien and Lewis. The two, especially following Tolkien’s successful conversion of his friend to Christianity, saw their works of fiction as a way to participate in the divine creation, since from the perspective of Christians, man was created in God’s “image and likeness,” and God was the first creator. Thus, by inventing cultures and crafting their own mythologies, the two men experienced creatio...

  Our in-class discussion about initiation rituals that aim to signify rebirth made me immediately think about the Christian Sacrament of Baptism, in which the entire purpose is for the baptized to be reborn. Undergoing this ritual, the person that is to be baptized experiences in some way the three broad stages of the hero’s journey, which can also be connected to the three stages of creation as understood by the cultures of the Ancient Near East. The hero’s journey consists of separation, initiation, and return, while creation in the Ancient Near East consisted of separation, the assignment of function, and the giving of a name. Baptism is a ritual practice emblematic of both of these three-stage processes. In a traditional understanding of the Sacrament, the cleansing waters of Baptism separate the baptized person from the stain of Original Sin which they are born with. Then, by virtue of the Sacramental character of the event, the baptized person receives a spiritual anointing ...