“Fear”

A poem by Khalil Gibran describes both the Protagonist’s journey … and the writer’s journey.

When this poem crossed my social media path the other day and I read it, I was struck how it describes a critical juncture in the Protagonist’s journey.

It is said that before entering the sea
 a river trembles with fear.
 
 She looks back at the path she has traveled,
 from the peaks of the mountains,
 the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
 
 And in front of her,
 she sees an ocean so vast,
 that to enter
 there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

Joseph Campbell describes the start of the hero’s journey this way: “The call to adventure is about transformation and that’s terrifying. The Hero has to confront fear. Will the Hero survive? Will they change for the Good or the Bad?”

It is not surprising a Protagonist “trembles with fear.” The uncertainty of the New World, “an ocean so vast … there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.” Not only fear of change, but fear of death. 
 But there is no other way.
 The river can not go back.
 
 Nobody can go back.
 To go back is impossible in existence.
 
Again Joseph Campbell about where the hero begins their journey in their Old World: “The hero is making do, but feels something missing, a sense of discomfort or tension. The Hero needs to change.”

Now that Fate has intervened with an event Campbell describes as the Call to Adventure, they cannot “go back,” just like a river can not go back. They know they need to change, even though the prospect of that change can be terrifying.

The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

This is the great revelation that occurs in the Protagonist’s journey where they realize the transformation they experience may put to “death” their old ways of being, but that in turn opens them up to “becoming the ocean.” They experience empowerment that arises from within incited by the events that happen from without.

This echoes the writer’s journey. When we commit to writing a project, we are confronted by the great unknown. We may have the inspiration to start writing, but the fact is no matter how much we may have broken the story in prep, it is still fundamentally a mystery. Filled with uncertainty and challenges we cannot be sure we can surmount.

But in giving ourselves over to our characters … in believing we will see and hear them … by plunging into the “ocean,” immersing ourselves in those “waters,” we become as one with the ocean.

The story becomes a part of who we are … and we become a part of the story.

And so the mantra: Trust the process.

Take the plunge. The water’s fine.