Hey Joe
“Follow your bliss.“
Joseph Campbell’s simple yet moving aphorism has inspired many of his students to partake in the fulfilling life they have always deserved.
This message is starkly beautiful, admirable in the patience it subtly suggests: to follow bliss, rather than to chase it. To follow it means to release yourself from the anxiety of having to invent or decipher your bliss. The source of bliss in your life is ever present and hidden only by the underbrush of your own clouded perception.
I love this message. I’m going to tape it over my desk one of these days.
But then, the message doesn’t always get me out of bed in the morning.
So next to that one, I’m going to put up a lengthier, more suitably modern version:
“Follow your bliss.
Get its scent
and follow it,
Quietly.
Hunt it down.
Set a trap for it.
And if it outsmarts you,
Run after it
Screaming.
Wield a machete;
Watch it cower;
Lead it into submission.
If, frightened, it threatens your life,
Destroy it.
Devour what you can.
Sell the rest.“
