Einstein and Campbell

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As far as I know, our brains are capable of understanding only two languages; logic and imagination. Separately, each have their own limitations but, together, they are boundless and unconquerable. Logic can take you from point A to point B, wrote Einstein, but imagination can take you everywhere.

 

I have always been fascinated by this concept. That the mind does not distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. That, even in the face of reason, we only believe what we choose to believe, because we imagine that it’s true.

 

Perhaps this is why I am so mesmerized by the intellectual dexterity of Albert Einstein and the prophetic vision of Joseph Campbell. Einstein, not so much for his acumen as a theoretical physicist, but for his cognitive ability to manifest and demystify the universe in which we live. Campbell, not so much for his comprehensive compendium of world mythology, but for his native ability to interpret the universal meanings inherent in those myths.

 

All myths are public dreams and all dreams are private myths, wrote Campbell. They are realities of our own creation, limited or unconstrained, only by our imagination. They justify our core beliefs, or they perpetuate our doubts. They enable or ennoble faith, or they manifest our fears. They give meaning to our very lives, or they rob our lives of meaning.

 

Part of this, it seems to me, is that we live our lives in silos. A vertical existence. A ladder on a wall. A well-worn path to follow. A harbinger. An omen. For those who choose to walk this path, their path is chosen for them. Rung-by-rung and step-by-step, their lives are predetermined.

 

But Campbell also forewarned that, if you see your path laid-out in front of you, one predictable step at a time, then you know it’s not your path. Your path is made in real time. It is made with every step you take. With every hope, and every dream, and every choice you make.

 

Life, for Einstein, was the transparent expression of an outward experience. “I want to know God’s thoughts”, he said, “the rest are details”. For Campbell, life was an inward journey devoid of preconception. Blissful. Translucent. Transcendent.

 

I dance between the raindrops and live my life in motion. Life, for me, is both an outward expression of an inward journey and the logical extension of the imagined world in which I live.

 

It’s my world. It’s my life. It’s my choice.

 

Imagine that.