“Mom, why don’t we have a bible?” he asked as we sat down for dinner. Aaron’s four-year-old voice always oozed curiosity, but not usually with this tone of concern.
Oh boy! He’s been hanging out with the extended family again! I could feel the frustration simmering beneath my skin.
“We do have a bible. It’s Avatar: The Last Airbender,” his dad interjected and shot me a quick wink and a smile across the table.
“Oh… well… okay…” The answer seemed to satisfy Aaron enough that he grabbed his fork and got lost in the food in front of him.
Avatar is our bible! OMG, that was genius! I thought as I smiled back at my husband and began eating. It’s true. That show has all of the most important life lessons wrapped up in a super fun adventure.
My husband’s quick thinking cracked open an idea that day -- one that was confirmed and expanded as we neared the end of the cartoon series many years later.
We all sat in the oversized living room with the big screen tv, watching as the main character trained with his mentor. As he was preparing himself for the final battle, he had a vision that his friend was in trouble.
Immediately, he stopped his training.
I leapt for the remote control, paused the show, and asked Aaron what he thought would happen if the hero stopped his training. After his frustrated “I don’t know,” I offered a clue from the Star Wars epic we had just finished watching the night before; and after a short line of inquiries, he predicted on his own that this hero was going to fail and/or get hurt in the process.
Looking back, I realize that the question itself was a huge risk. I hadn’t seen this episode before. I didn’t know for sure that the main character was going to walk into a trap and be almost-mortally wounded. But it all happened as I’d predicted.
Maybe I did know that it was going to happen. But how would I have known that?
Well, I didn’t learn about Story and archetypes until a decade after this moment in the oversized living room, but I didn’t have to know what they were in order to experience their power.
Soon, I would discover that I already had a religion of Story and that it was time for me to refine it with the help of my son.
***
Did I mention there was another book I’ve been collaborating on… with my SON?Aaron and I have spent the last 18 months or so writing about “A Religion of Story” and how mindfully engaging Story has:- (re)shaped both of us
- made our relationship more awesome and fun
- given us a common language
- provided the opportunity for us to wrestle with the most important questions of life (and ourselves)
- empowered and equipped us to shape our own hero’s journeys
The collaborative writing is complete,
and we launch April 6th – his 19th birthday!
For the next 7 weeks, we hope you will enjoy your sneak peeks at the content of the book and maybe take your own hero’s journey through the 7 Themes of Story: Uncertainty, Self-Knowledge, Training, Camaraderie, Redemption, Destiny, and Leadership. And, of course, you’ll have the opportunity to dive deeper with us into our portals (workshops) and quests and even get discounts on some of our big programs as gratitude for helping us get this message to the parents and leaders who need it the most.
Thank you in advance for taking this journey with us!
If you have children or grandchildren and/or are struggling to shift and heal your own st*ries, I promise this will be one of the most important quests you ever take and, like every great hero, you and yours will never be the same.
