Matthew 13:57 [57] And they were scandalized in his regard. But Jesus said to them: A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.

“You Can’t Go Home Again” – Thomas Wolfe (book title)

“Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.” -Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Stage 3 encompasses the rest of the tale. In a story, it’s what happens after the big test and the claiming of the prize. It also only happens once in a tale. The biggest Boss battle has ended with the hero’s success, but there’s still a final Boss to defeat and that battle will finalize the transformation of the character. In real life however, the return to the ordinary world happens as often as we embark on a new experience that takes us out of our comfortable ways and into someplace new, where we find more truths about ourselves and the world around us.

The road back, and the return home are when we know that we must step back into our ordinary lives. There was a departure point and our return was expected. After all there was a reason we left. What happens after a character gets back is left as an unwritten chapter. Sometimes we are graced with an epilogue but many times we are left with ‘… and they lived happily ever after’. The happily ever afters are because that’s the end of that journey. Every tale can have a happy ending depending on where the author chooses to finish the story. But what happens after we, as humans, go back to our ordinary world? Of course, the only answer is, it depends.

There is still that final battle before the end. Joseph Campbell, the gentleman who is credited for the compilation of the Hero’s Journey, had some very specific parts that laid out this section. I won’t go into each one here but rather, I’m using Christopher Vogler’s simplified version. The road back is not a path lined with primroses and good weather. It’s an important part of the journey. It’s the part where we see the character fail some tests.

When I was young, I ran track. Not very well mind you, but I gave it a go. In a 400m race, the last 100m, or so, the runner has to accelerate and hold that increased speed to beyond the finish line. That also happens to be when many runners encounter ‘the wall’. ‘The wall’ is when a runner experiences sudden fatigue and muscle heaviness due to depleted physiological resources. Although they are feeling the effects of their efforts they must expend yet more effort against their body’s protests. It becomes the mind over the body to finish the race. Even with that understanding and effort there are no guarantees that they will be successful and win. This is the road back. There are no guaranteed outcomes. There are still risks and we can fail but the lesson at this point of the story is we do not have to give up when things are challenging. That lesson is its own reward.

What’s the final Boss here? It’s almost always ourselves. Campbell references historical works such as ‘The Odyssey’ and it has one example I find especially appropriate because it is pretty typical of the kinds of things we do to ourselves when we’re almost home.

“Aeolus stowed the sack inside my holds, lashed so fast
with a burnished silver cord
not even a slight puff could slip past that knot.
Yet he set the West Wind free to blow us on our way
and waft our squadron home. But his plan was bound to fail,
yes, our own reckless folly swept us on to ruin.”

– Homer

“A mutinous crew undid me – that and a cruel sleep.
Set it to rights, my friends. You have the power!”

– Homer

Aeolus had given Odysseus a bag that contained all the unfavorable winds so that his ship would sail unhampered, but the crew were greedy and thought the bag must contain treasure, opening it, and letting loose the unfavorable winds. Thereby causing their imminent homecoming to fail. Odysseus then enters an extended return home, facing sirens and losing his crew along the way.

We’ve braved the road, battled ourselves and are still standing. The final test is at hand. It is time to return with the elixir. It should be a simple thing to do. We went out to get something and bring it home. But in the process of getting that something, we became more than we were when we left. The people and places that we left behind have all been experiencing their own changes while we were away. This by far, in my humble opinion, is the hardest part of the journey.

Real life changes rather quickly. The scope of the world building here is beyond anything in literature. I can’t count the number of times I set out, fought battles all the way, attained the reward, slogged through the end game, only to find that the reward was no longer valuable, or even desired. It’s a good thing that the journey has its own rewards for those who accept it. We often find treasures, that we weren’t seeking, along the way that are more valuable than what we originally sought.

The people in our lives set out on their journeys, fought battles, claimed their rewards, slogged back home just as we did. When we meet again after these experiences it can be jarring. There isn’t an adventurer’s pub where we can show off our loot, tell our tales, and share a meal. We could use a few pubs like those I think. Instead, we come home looking and sounding much different than how we left. Some people will note the changes and greet us with curiosity while others will just as easily dismiss our tales as lies. Hopefully, we will remember that we don’t know what worlds they have been adventuring in and be curious about them as well.

We keep changing. Unlike the characters of a story, we have multiple character arcs and those are more like drops of water filling a pool. Each drop contains an entire adventure out of our ordinary world. But as they fill the pool, all these comings and goings change the baseline of what our ordinary world is. Each adventure, each lesson learned, every battle fought, every time we refused to quit, becomes the tale of our life up to now. Each drop is a single ‘happily’ that’s on its way to its ever after.

Thank you for reading! Thank you also for the kind thoughts and words for my sick pigeon. She’s better today.