| New
& Views
- Feb, 1992 Issue |
The Journey
By John K. Mercer
Presented at Mission Mountain School
Graduation 6/15/91
(406) 754-2580
For untold thousands of years,
human culture supported children in the process of growing up through
extended family systems and a series of cultural rites of passages.
These are significant cultural events imbued with meaning and traditions
and representing systematic change and development. These traditions
and processes allowed the parent to provide love, support and encouragement
while the extended family in the form of Aunts and Uncles and elders
in the culture taught the children and guided them in the difficult
process of becoming an adult. These events were often overseen by the
religious and cultural elders.
In our culture today, many
of these processes and traditions have fallen by the way side.... But
often the result is a sterile education factory that does not support
the delicate and painful process of becoming and compliance is sought.
This journey is rich with human meaning and stories about it abound
throughout human history in all cultures.... Joseph Campbell called
these stories and the metaphor of the journey, the myth of the heroic
quest. The elements of the story include that the somehow socially disadvantaged
young man or woman needs to take a dangerous journey. He or she at first
is motivated by self-interest or fear, but he or she then acquires allies
and "a spirit helper of some sort that begins to help them find hidden
resources within themselves". After difficulties, they slay the dragon,
and bring their learned talents, strength and knowledge back to their
community "and eventually to the children in the next cycle."
This I believe is the essence
of people making. It is no accident that stories and myths containing
these elements abound in the human experience. The young men and women
graduating before you today have embarked on their journey of discovery....
Today they deserve our honor and respect, for they are truly heroes.
Copyright
© 1992, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced without
prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author
attribution accompanies the copy.) |