In the Editor's Foreword, David Kudler recalls some words from Mr. Campbell about how, as he reviewed his work toward the end of his life, it became apparent that his career had had a thesis: that myths permit fulfillment -- that "understanding the ways that myths and symbolds affect he individual mind offered a way to lead a life that was in tune with one's nature -- a pathway to bliss."

I find it helpful to think about what "myth" means here, because we're going to be dealing with ideas like mythology and transcendence soon, and those can very quickly turn into crunchy new-agey frocks that feel very nice but aren't much help when the weather gets cold.

The value of myths -- as I tend to think of it -- is in the telling of meaningful stories. Whenever you receive a story that hits you, emotionally: good, that means you found a clue. It's waving a flag, giving you a signal, pointing out the way to go: "follow him! He went that way!" Study it.

That's why we're doing this -- telling stories, sighing in pleasure, and then turning around and saying, "that was nice, can we do it again? And can we make it better? How does it work, anyway?"

The foreword also lists a number of other valuable texts, in particular The Collected Words of Joseph Campbell. And it lays out a roadmap:

- Part 1: A history of how individuals needed and benefited from myths
- Part 2: What it is in the human mind that makes us need myths
- Part 3: Using the monomyth of The Hero's Journey as a guide for one's own personal search for meaning

It just occurred to me that it was only in seventh grade that they started teaching us about metaphors -- before that year, I'd never even heard the word in a class. Oh, public schooling, you hide every key.