Deliverance

One perplexing aspect about documenting a Hero’s Journey while you’re living it is that you really don’t know for certain which of the 12-points on the cycle you are reaching until after the fact. (It’s comparable to writing a memoir without the looking-back perspective of time.) Midpoint through the journey is the Ordeal, the big battle, the dark night of the soul. Just before that is the Approach, the spot where one plans for the battle, the outlook for what’s around the next bend.
     I anticipate my Ordeal will be my surgery and the Approach could be where I am at now, planning for that event. I was thinking about this yesterday, then ring, my surgeon’s office called and set up a meeting for the end of next week. I could write appointment but my relationships with my physicians feel like give-and-take collaborative sessions, rather than appointments with medical experts. I find this particularly indicative of how far we’ve come in 2013.
     My 16-year-old diary from 1972 lists all the movies Ron and I saw as teens including many which fall into the pattern of Hero’s Journeys: Romeo and Juliet. Funny Girl. Gone with the Wind. 2001. Planet of the Apes. Ryan’s Daughter. Billy Jack. Love Story. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Godfather. Airport. Kansas City Bomber. What’s Up Doc? Bad Company. Fiddler on the Roof. Jeremiah Johnson. Deliverance. Walking Tall. Shaft. Virgin Spring. The Graduate. Brian’s Song. Sleeper. Great Gatsby. American Graffiti. Godspell. Jaws. Bob & Carol, Ted and Alice…
     Of all the films, the thriller “Deliverance” (1972) left the strongest impression on me.  The scenics were compelling because we frequently canoed the Wisconsin River. They were also groundbreakingly experiential at the time; I was running that river with Burt Reynolds. Secondly, I was drawn to “Dueling Banjos” and still want to learn to pick and play (and maybe this will be the summer to do it.) But "Deliverance" is also a Hero’s Journey. 

     In the story, four city guys decide to leave their ordinary world and take a ride down a scenic river in Georgia before dams change the river forever. On the way, the men meet suspicious locals. Tests and trials start happening the mens’ first night on the river. The group is soon separated; two of the men are accosted by a pair of shotgun-wielding hillbillies. The hillbillies tie one man to a tree and violently attack the other. As the hillbillies prepare to continue with the attack, the other two arrive on the scene. Using his bow, the hero Lewis (Burt Reynolds) kills the attacker and scares off the other man. This gets us through the ordeal. From there, the story continues with the men on high alert, and, by the end, all characters have changed. 

       My antagonists are two spots of cancer and, using her bow (or rather scalpel) my surgeon will extricate these enemies (hopefully suppressed by the chemo.) That’s where we’re headed with my story. The music and action, I need to think about a bit more. Right now, I’m focused on navigating the river.