As Cervantes said in Don Quijote ( the greatest novel ever written), "Cada uno es heroe de su propia novela" (everyone is the hero of his own novel). So, yes, Doctor McCormick, I think you are on to something. Thank you for sharing your great ideas and great writing. We may only be five years away from the Singularity (according to Ray Kurzweil), but you have AI beat by a lightyear.
This is a perfect quote for the column, thanks for posting it! So many truths and parables within that one masterpiece. Adding it to my list as I’m not sure I’ve even read more than chapters. Were going to need a lot of heroes with what’s coming on multiple fronts including AI agreed!
Powerful and helpful for me at this post op time. Sometimes it’s a saga too, for me dating to late 2021. But continuing NED, so I’m grateful to have come this far.
Wishing you a good recovery PJJ, and I like the idea of a saga better actually. Those Nordic Iceland types endured some pretty awful living conditions but thrived partly or wholly upon the power of their sagas (epic heroic stories)
Anyone who has faced and overcome adversities, whether small or immense—and who hasn’t?—may not necessarily feel heroic but should certainly feel proud. And even if the adversity sometimes wins out but you know you’ve done your best, you should feel proud.
I like this humble notion Mim, and with the way heroes are portrayed these days I think it is more appropriate. We might equate heroes with superhuman abilities and feel inadequate to meet our challenges unless we can shoot spider webs out of our wrists. Pride in oneself and compassion for oneself written into our narrative of self
True that, and it’s fun to get a bit nostalgic about those old days ha!
Walter Mitty might be too much like the kid who gets trophies for every little thing, swept up by flights of fantastical heroism while the real world is just too indifferent? Would like to read that again someday and see how the character sits with me - pitiable/ridiculous or stubbornly heroic or both!
Ryan, this morning I owe you a huge “Thank you” for your very timely post. Chance, serendipity, a “fluke”…..(Brian Klaas, Substack)? Whatever prompted you to this particular post, for me, it was just what I needed to hear. Right now! At 86 and “traveling”, I am very fortunate to live in comfort, to have good friends. But there are still the awful and awesome challenges of the varying disablements of the aging body. Last week I was called to do jury duty. I planned carefully. I rose early to drive to the courthouse and find parking. At 7:30 am I was coffee’d up, and in my car, ready to roll, and then realized that there was no way at all that I could move forward. I emailed the Court, and later received dispensation, forever. I have been removed from the rolls. I am in part relieved, and in part saddened by another indication of lack of agency and have been waking to this thought every day. I have not yet read your vintage piece, and of course I shall. But your words “hero’s journey” reminded me of washing dishes with my father, as he recited Shakespeare or Victorian poetry, one of his favorites being Longfellow’s Excelsior. So I think my mantra from now on will be: “Excelsior”! Thank you again!
Hi Mary, you get real hero credit both for still trying to will your body through jury duty and for persisting through the often painful experience of being 86 regardless! A real lovely image of washing dishes with your father while he recites poetry or Shakespeare, helping to burnish real strength and beauty in your mind during those precious mundane moments that make up the evanescent miracle of families. Excelsior indeed💪❤️
I don’t know about that term hero—seems a bit lofty to me—but the concept of taking control of what is in one’s control does certainly make sense. Recently, doing the Olympic Sport of housework, I did something to my knee. Here were the steps I went through that (might) correspond to the cycle you describe.
1 (protagonist): Ignore it until it can’t be ignored;
2 (shift): contact my wonderful PCP, who takes a look and refers me to an orthopedic surgeon, who diagnoses and determines I won’t ever need surgery, as I have the knees of a 50 year old (I am 75);
3 (quest): stumble home thinking, but why am I hobbling like a 95 year old, then do research, read the visit notes when they arrive in the patient portal, and confirm I need PT😵💫;
4 (allies) chase down the surgeon to get a referral, which while promised doesn’t happen, go to my PCP (yay, PCPs), who delivers one in a hot minute;
5 (challenge): start PT, things go a little south, go back to researching, realize the PT person could benefit from seeing the X-rays, chase down the surgeon to get the X-rays, which aren’t in the patient portal;
6 (transformation) PT person sees X-rays, reads carefully and changes her approach to manipulating the knee, and now we are making decent progress;
7 (legacy): surgeons need to get out of their silos and think about after care even if surgery isn’t required😎; hospital admin systems need vast improvement for proper coordination of care and follow-up🔥🤬🔥; and I am not doing anymore Olympic Level housework🧹.
So, I would not call myself a hero—nor would my mate who had to hear my disquisitions on more than one occasion about what is broken about our health care “system.” But I guess this long-winded excursion fits within the frame, and it was fun for me to try to fit my facts to it!
Susan this is great, and if it helped put a little spin on the whole experience that was helpful and empowering, despite the pain and decreased mobility, then the authors would be proud no doubt! Our lives are made of seemingly infinite stories but if we can hold onto a unifying motor like “heroism” in acts and endurances both large and small, we might just make it through the journey more intact and empowered. Thank you for sharing this thought experiment it works great!
Now, you do NOT need to respond to this, but just for the record, I must note I saw the “legacy” step quite differently: our health care “system” desperately needs fixing, on many levels. Since I had this experience, other older friends have recounted similar tunnel vision problems with surgeons, indeed, even a primary ortho I subsequently saw confirmed that a silo mentality among surgeons is often afoot in cases where surgery turns out not to be indicated. Excellent at what they do, but no thought about what should be recommended if surgery turns out not to be required. Beyond that, I thought of my mom and other older friends encountering a mobility problem like this that is not hopeless at all and can be overcome by PT. Would they know to yank a PT referral and the X-rays out of the surgeon that had diagnosed them? Or would they, as I have often seen, quietly resign themselves to the idea that nothing can be done? And, more to the point, why should they have to figure that out themselves? These are simple after-diagnosis steps that should have been addressed in the visit. No patient should be put in the position of scrambling to figure basics like this out on their own. (Now you see what my mate gets when I am on my soapbox😎.)
Thank you. My 2nd reaction is that this post gives me hope as I look for new narratives to help our adult children succeed against the challenges of .... adulthood. My 1st reaction was: "Well I'll be. My delusions of grandeur were actually useful?"
Totally agree, Jerry! I think I have somewhat of a hero complex for better and worse, but when needed it’s nice to turn that on! I think this sort of narrative structure could help adult children, their generation is certainly enduring a lot of challenges now and in the future.
The hero or warrior journey is the perfect antidote to victim mentality. Vulnerable narcissism seems to be a dominant theme in our culture - a lack of empathy, gaslighting, shifting blame, not taking accountability, creating drama to portray themselves as a victim, hiding behind fake grandiosity - all because people learned helplessness and feel powerless. I expect this substack will inspire others to self reflect and realize we can all CHOOSE to see ourselves as the warriors in our own stories. The belief in oneself is a powerful tool - it's another example of how powerful our minds can be!
I completely agree Lisa, thank you for summarizing this so well! I think the kind of heroism described herein is not one of grandiosity or conquering, but rather of durability and self compassion. I will try to channel it myself as a way to get by during difficult times we are all presented with. Thanks for stopping by!
So true, this deserves a separate expository paragraph, I’ll try to circle back around, I think it also dovetails with the Walter Mitty comment above, thank you!
As Cervantes said in Don Quijote ( the greatest novel ever written), "Cada uno es heroe de su propia novela" (everyone is the hero of his own novel). So, yes, Doctor McCormick, I think you are on to something. Thank you for sharing your great ideas and great writing. We may only be five years away from the Singularity (according to Ray Kurzweil), but you have AI beat by a lightyear.
Lynda Ritterman
Lynda Ritterman
This is a perfect quote for the column, thanks for posting it! So many truths and parables within that one masterpiece. Adding it to my list as I’m not sure I’ve even read more than chapters. Were going to need a lot of heroes with what’s coming on multiple fronts including AI agreed!
Powerful and helpful for me at this post op time. Sometimes it’s a saga too, for me dating to late 2021. But continuing NED, so I’m grateful to have come this far.
Wishing you a good recovery PJJ, and I like the idea of a saga better actually. Those Nordic Iceland types endured some pretty awful living conditions but thrived partly or wholly upon the power of their sagas (epic heroic stories)
Anyone who has faced and overcome adversities, whether small or immense—and who hasn’t?—may not necessarily feel heroic but should certainly feel proud. And even if the adversity sometimes wins out but you know you’ve done your best, you should feel proud.
I like this humble notion Mim, and with the way heroes are portrayed these days I think it is more appropriate. We might equate heroes with superhuman abilities and feel inadequate to meet our challenges unless we can shoot spider webs out of our wrists. Pride in oneself and compassion for oneself written into our narrative of self
Ah, the best of Examined nostalgia series. ;-)
This is a very nice post and a good tool too. As long as we avoidthe Walter Mitty Syndrome. I'll save you the trip: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mitty.
True that, and it’s fun to get a bit nostalgic about those old days ha!
Walter Mitty might be too much like the kid who gets trophies for every little thing, swept up by flights of fantastical heroism while the real world is just too indifferent? Would like to read that again someday and see how the character sits with me - pitiable/ridiculous or stubbornly heroic or both!
Ryan, this morning I owe you a huge “Thank you” for your very timely post. Chance, serendipity, a “fluke”…..(Brian Klaas, Substack)? Whatever prompted you to this particular post, for me, it was just what I needed to hear. Right now! At 86 and “traveling”, I am very fortunate to live in comfort, to have good friends. But there are still the awful and awesome challenges of the varying disablements of the aging body. Last week I was called to do jury duty. I planned carefully. I rose early to drive to the courthouse and find parking. At 7:30 am I was coffee’d up, and in my car, ready to roll, and then realized that there was no way at all that I could move forward. I emailed the Court, and later received dispensation, forever. I have been removed from the rolls. I am in part relieved, and in part saddened by another indication of lack of agency and have been waking to this thought every day. I have not yet read your vintage piece, and of course I shall. But your words “hero’s journey” reminded me of washing dishes with my father, as he recited Shakespeare or Victorian poetry, one of his favorites being Longfellow’s Excelsior. So I think my mantra from now on will be: “Excelsior”! Thank you again!
You ARE a hero! As my 96 year old Mom says, aging is not for sissies! Excelsior!
Hi Mary, you get real hero credit both for still trying to will your body through jury duty and for persisting through the often painful experience of being 86 regardless! A real lovely image of washing dishes with your father while he recites poetry or Shakespeare, helping to burnish real strength and beauty in your mind during those precious mundane moments that make up the evanescent miracle of families. Excelsior indeed💪❤️
I don’t know about that term hero—seems a bit lofty to me—but the concept of taking control of what is in one’s control does certainly make sense. Recently, doing the Olympic Sport of housework, I did something to my knee. Here were the steps I went through that (might) correspond to the cycle you describe.
1 (protagonist): Ignore it until it can’t be ignored;
2 (shift): contact my wonderful PCP, who takes a look and refers me to an orthopedic surgeon, who diagnoses and determines I won’t ever need surgery, as I have the knees of a 50 year old (I am 75);
3 (quest): stumble home thinking, but why am I hobbling like a 95 year old, then do research, read the visit notes when they arrive in the patient portal, and confirm I need PT😵💫;
4 (allies) chase down the surgeon to get a referral, which while promised doesn’t happen, go to my PCP (yay, PCPs), who delivers one in a hot minute;
5 (challenge): start PT, things go a little south, go back to researching, realize the PT person could benefit from seeing the X-rays, chase down the surgeon to get the X-rays, which aren’t in the patient portal;
6 (transformation) PT person sees X-rays, reads carefully and changes her approach to manipulating the knee, and now we are making decent progress;
7 (legacy): surgeons need to get out of their silos and think about after care even if surgery isn’t required😎; hospital admin systems need vast improvement for proper coordination of care and follow-up🔥🤬🔥; and I am not doing anymore Olympic Level housework🧹.
So, I would not call myself a hero—nor would my mate who had to hear my disquisitions on more than one occasion about what is broken about our health care “system.” But I guess this long-winded excursion fits within the frame, and it was fun for me to try to fit my facts to it!
Susan this is great, and if it helped put a little spin on the whole experience that was helpful and empowering, despite the pain and decreased mobility, then the authors would be proud no doubt! Our lives are made of seemingly infinite stories but if we can hold onto a unifying motor like “heroism” in acts and endurances both large and small, we might just make it through the journey more intact and empowered. Thank you for sharing this thought experiment it works great!
Now, you do NOT need to respond to this, but just for the record, I must note I saw the “legacy” step quite differently: our health care “system” desperately needs fixing, on many levels. Since I had this experience, other older friends have recounted similar tunnel vision problems with surgeons, indeed, even a primary ortho I subsequently saw confirmed that a silo mentality among surgeons is often afoot in cases where surgery turns out not to be indicated. Excellent at what they do, but no thought about what should be recommended if surgery turns out not to be required. Beyond that, I thought of my mom and other older friends encountering a mobility problem like this that is not hopeless at all and can be overcome by PT. Would they know to yank a PT referral and the X-rays out of the surgeon that had diagnosed them? Or would they, as I have often seen, quietly resign themselves to the idea that nothing can be done? And, more to the point, why should they have to figure that out themselves? These are simple after-diagnosis steps that should have been addressed in the visit. No patient should be put in the position of scrambling to figure basics like this out on their own. (Now you see what my mate gets when I am on my soapbox😎.)
Thank you. My 2nd reaction is that this post gives me hope as I look for new narratives to help our adult children succeed against the challenges of .... adulthood. My 1st reaction was: "Well I'll be. My delusions of grandeur were actually useful?"
Totally agree, Jerry! I think I have somewhat of a hero complex for better and worse, but when needed it’s nice to turn that on! I think this sort of narrative structure could help adult children, their generation is certainly enduring a lot of challenges now and in the future.
The hero or warrior journey is the perfect antidote to victim mentality. Vulnerable narcissism seems to be a dominant theme in our culture - a lack of empathy, gaslighting, shifting blame, not taking accountability, creating drama to portray themselves as a victim, hiding behind fake grandiosity - all because people learned helplessness and feel powerless. I expect this substack will inspire others to self reflect and realize we can all CHOOSE to see ourselves as the warriors in our own stories. The belief in oneself is a powerful tool - it's another example of how powerful our minds can be!
I completely agree Lisa, thank you for summarizing this so well! I think the kind of heroism described herein is not one of grandiosity or conquering, but rather of durability and self compassion. I will try to channel it myself as a way to get by during difficult times we are all presented with. Thanks for stopping by!
Reframing to achieve a sense of agency vs the tyranny of positive thinking. Love it!
Perfectly summarized and the power of agency is just that!
But avoid the narrative of being a "tragic hero," at all costs.
So true, this deserves a separate expository paragraph, I’ll try to circle back around, I think it also dovetails with the Walter Mitty comment above, thank you!