Slay the Dragon of Thou Shalt

May 19, 2011

At some poignant moment (one that I barely remember), in the fog of my early twenties, a friend whom I will most certainly stumble upon again in some future lifetime, gave me a little book called Reflections on the Art of Living: A Companion to Joseph Campbell. I read it from cover to cover, gave it to another friend, then bought it again, read it, and gave it to yet another friend. I went on like that with this book which had become my favorite, always giving it away only to buy it again and reread every page.

Its message haunted me, “Follow your bliss as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond”. Every fiber of my being yearned to run urgently toward my destiny with love and gratitude. To save myself from the shallow mediocrity of philosophical waxing over cocktails and cigarettes. And so one day, many years later, instead of turning right into the parking lot of my favorite pub, I took the road less traveled…a left turn down the path which led me here, to “slay the dragon of thou shalt”.

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Meg
May 20, 2011 @ 23:51:44

I have a confession and that would be, I don’t understand “thou shalt”. I hate admitting this but what is the “thou shalt” referring to? the only thing i can come up with is the 10 commandments. What am I missing here? I do love the over all concept of this post and that is one of my fav JC quotes, this one is my other fav: “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are”.

outlawfarmer
May 21, 2011 @ 00:36:36

For me “thou shalt” is every rule, every concept people try to conform to, everything but who you really are. Its the voice of rejection that makes you feel unworthy of true love. It is the voice of doubt and despair. It feeds right into the quote in your comment which I also love. In my life, I came to a point where I had to kill the person I had become in order to be free to find who I am. And that’s where my post picks up.

Sophie
Aug 24, 2011 @ 14:52:56

Meg, “thou shalt” is, very simply, the voice of anything inauthentic to you telling you how to live your life – whether it is religious doctrine/commandments, society in general, parents, friends, whatever. When he says “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are,” he means who you authentically are, free of the false expectations put on you by others telling you what you SHOULD be.

Good luck.