The Hero's Journey is something that is very important to our society. It is something used universally in stories, poems, and plays. This is probably because it reflects the lives of so many. This reflection makes these stories not only timely, but interesting and helpful. Now of course it is not an exact duplicate of our lives. Take Hercules, we all know that as a young child in a crib, none of us killed snakes. We also realize that on our "journey" whatever it may be, we don" t carry our children in our thigh. We do however carry our children. The journey from someone's childhood, to their adulthood is not just a journey for them, but a journey for their parents and loved ones. It follows The Hero's Journey quite well. All over the world people watch their children from birth, through school, which is always a traumatic event, through marriage, adulthood, and even death. This journey for the parent's is one of heartache, pride, and even extreme joy. This is also something that brings all parents together, and makes this topic so universal. Things like this happen today, happened yesterday, and will happen tomorrow, this is what makes this archetype as relevant today as it was hundreds of thousand of years ago. The relevance is what makes it so popular, and the reason that stories of this type are so widely read, and universally taught. By teaching these stories we learn how to better handle our lives, and how to help others handle theirs. It also helps us understand the path that we are on, how to travel that path, and that we are never alone on that path. I have experienced this archetype in my own life. It was however in my great grandfather. He is ninety years old and coming to the end of his life. He has been through his life, and seen the life of his kids. Their journey through childhood, it was filled with happiness, and heartache. Their journey through school, marriage, divorce, adulthood, and the birth of their own children.
