The Hero's Journey

(I did not take this photo)

I read Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" last summer, and it really made an impression on me. It helped to know that inherent in every epic journey is a moment when you doubt yourself, your plan, and your decisions. Everything can be going along just fine when, out of nowhere, you start wondering what on Earth you're doing.

When that happened to me this afternoon I got in the car and just started driving. Josh Groban was playing on the CD player (because the only radio station in town plays AC/DC 24 hours a day, and I just wasn't in the mood). Stephan was at work, so I adventured down Rt. 7 to Medicine Rocks again. The sun was just starting to set and I thought I would like to see what the sunset is like out there. Here's what I learned: Montana is an amazing place for a lighting designer to live.

I rounded up a hill and, as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" started to play, the sun hit me full in the face. Everything around me was in shadow, silhouetted against I sky that, I swear, was lit on fire. It was as though the biggest campfire in the world was raging just over the next hill, and all I could see of it was one lick of bright flame. All around me were the oddly shaped monoliths of rock, towering over the little dirt drive. I could see the valley below for about 20 miles. The clouds were red-hot, and the steel blue of the sky just barely managed to keep them from bursting into flames.

Have I made the right decisions? Not always. But deciding to share my life with someone, moving to Montana, adopting two dogs, and following my wildest dreams... definitely on my list of good ones.