Personal Legend

A very dear childhood friend of mine recently told me to watch the Brazilian author Paulo Cuehlo's interviews with Oprah Winfrey on Super Soul Sunday. Now here, I must confess, I have not yet read "The Alchemist," Mr. Cuehlo's very famous book that has sold millions of copies the world over. But I swear to you, as I did my very good friend, I will. It is now on my list, and will probably be the subject of another blog down the line.

But I did watch the interviews as recommended, part one and part two. And what's funny is, just a week or two before I had also heard a radio interview with Mr. Cuehlo on NPR's show "On Being" (another favorite of mine!) with Krista Tippett. In that interview he talked a lot about his book which preceded "the Alchemist," "The Pilgrimage;" a book about his 500 mile pilgrim walk from France to northern Spain.

In the interviews with Oprah though, he spoke a lot about his hypothesis or belief if you will, that each individual human being has a personal legend (his words) to be pursued in this one lifetime because we just don't know what, if anything, comes next after death. He said in the interview, our only obligation in life is to discover, honor & and full-fill our own personal legend.

But, he says, this process will not be without adversity. In fact, if we borrow from the great modern writers and thinkers about myth like Joseph Campbell (who they referred to in the interview as well), Thomas Moore, Marian Woodman, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, we know any worthy myth or legend will have its heroine or hero face all kinds of obstacles analogous to dragons and Cyclopes and mazes and dark nights of the soul.

It seems Mr. Cuehlo was no exception to the adversity either with his parents actually institutionalizing him 3 times as a response to their son's announcement that he planned to be a writer rather than a lawyer or some other reasonable vocation. But Mr. Cuehlo persisted. With courage I might add, which he says is a critical ingredient.  In pursuit of the dreams he had for himself he persevered and did not get stuck in the expectations and demands of others.

When I think about applying some of this wisdom to living an art-full life it prompts a pause for me to reflect on the messages I received about pursuing dreams because there were some similarities and some differences to Mr. Cuehlo's experiences.

As a young girl growing up in the late 70's and early 80's by liberal democratic parents of the feminist persuasion, dreaming big was not just encouraged, it was expected. To the point that my decision to join the cheerleading squad in high school rather than fight for my Title 9 rights to have a girls' soccer team was considered quite the disappointment. But also, like Mr. Cuehlo, there was a legacy from both sides of my family of constricting the range of choices available. You were told: you will do this. For example, my grandmother did tell my mother she would be going to a small out of state conservative college. My grandfather did tell my father he would be joining the service right out of high school not majoring in art at college.

On the other hand, there is also a legacy in my family history of rebellion.  Rebellion in the pursuit of a personal dream.  In my mother's sophomore year at college she informed her mother that she had already transferred herself to the college she really wanted to go to. And in my father's retirement he spends his days painting and creating for a co-op art gallery. And  Mr. Cuehlo? He told his parents he would be a writer, and after trying law school, he left and became an author of 31 books!

So I ask myself: what is my dream? Am I engaged in my own personal legend? What internalized messages hold me back from rebelling in pursuit of a dream?

And what I also want to know is: what is your personal legend? And what holds you back from going for it?