More wise words from Joe

Quote :

As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. Don’t bother to brush it off.

A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

OK, I'm off to look this one up. I'm curious about it's original source.

I will report back if I find anything.

Ann

Here's what a quick search turned up:

Quote :

This book was drawn from transcripts of a month-long series of workshops that Joseph Campbell gave at The Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California in March of 1984--the year of his eightieth birthday. The idea for the book was conceived by Diane K. Osborne in 1990, some three years after Campbell died.

(from the forward to the book by David Kudler, who is the managing editor of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and its publication of Campbell's works.)

I guess that means that, in order to get the original context, you would have to have been to that workshop in '84.

The whole quotation, at least according to the book, is

Quote :

Opportunities to find deeper powers with ourselves come when life seems most challenging.
Negativism to the pain and ferocity of life is negativism to life.
We are not there until we can say "yea" to it all.
To take a righteous attitude toward anything is to denigrate it.
Awe is what moves us forward.
As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. Don't bother to brush it off.
Getting a comedic view of your situation gives you spiritual distance. Having a sense of humor saves you

from several websites on Campbell, the hero's journey, and on this particular book, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

I thought this website was particularly cool:

http://revolutionwithin.me/2010/09/07/follow-your-bliss-idiots-guide-to-heros-journey/

So, without more to go on, I would say that what I hear is that other people's sh***y comments are never about you, but about their own "stuff." The best thing to do is ignore them and laugh them off rather than taking them seriously.

I like that.

Ann

alj wrote:

Quote :

As you proceed through life, following your own path, birds will shit on you. Don’t bother to brush it off.

A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

Easier said than done, but very sound advice.