Steven Barnes's Blog, page 9

Loneliness, the Holidays, and the Inner Family

Long ago, I was having a conversation with one of my first agents.  I was speaking of my Hollywood aspirations, and the fact that I’d seen so many people hurt themselves trying to “make it.”

 

“I don’t know what will happen in my career,” I said.   “But when I leave this town, I’m leaving with my sense of honor intact.”

 

He looked at me with amusement, and replied: “you’ll be the only one.”

 

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Heading into the holidays, I was sent articles explaining why the medical community now cons...

A Soulmate Is Born

“Maybe its time to let the old ways die.”— Jackson Main

There is a moment in “A Star Is Born” that is almost too painful to watch. In it, deteriorating Country Western singer Jackson Main is watching his wife Ally receive a “Best New Artist” Grammy. Inebriated, he wanders up on stage to join her. Right there on national television, he loses control of his bladder and wets himself, visibly. Imagine the humiliation and pain, the self-loathing not just triggered by something like that, but trigg...

Self Love: The “Rock” of Ages

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I was just watching Dwayne Johnson’s latest blockbuster “Skyscraper.”  In it, The Rock plays Will Sawyer, a former FBI/SWAT officer who, due to losing a lower leg, has retired to become a security specialist.  Sawyer has been hired to go to Hong Kong to vet the tallest building in the world, and while there, terrorists set fire to it.

 

Yes, it’s “Die Hard” in “The Towering Inferno.”

 

One scene that is especially powerful is the moment when he realizes his wife and two adorable children are...

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #10: The Student Becomes the Teacher

A glooming peace this morning with it brings.

The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.

Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

 

 

And that is the end of the play.   The last step of the Hero’s Journey is “The student becomes the teacher.”  Also such names as “the return to the village with the elixer” or “the movement to the higher level.”

 

When we finish one journey,...

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #9: Confront Evil and Win

IF only Tybalt and Mercutio had only been wounded instead of killed…

IF only Romeo and Juliet had been a little older and wiser…

The English-speaking world’s most famous love story might have ended with a wedding instead of a funeral, and been a comedy instead of a tragedy.

If you’ve never had the sense of “we were made for each other!” that timeless sense, that “discovering the other half of me” sense, that “sweet mystery of life I’ve finally found you” sense.

For the naïve, the first time y...

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #8: The Leap of Faith

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #8:   The Leap of Faith

 

 

 

“Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!

Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on

The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark!

Here’s to my love! Drinking. O true apothecary,

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.”

 

And with those words, Romeo commits suicide.

 

And here comes the moment which, if these lovers had not been children, tragedy could have been averted. Romeo found Juliet apparently dead, and at that moment, the pai...

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #7: The Dark Night (and “the last dog on Earth”)

Romeo returns from exile to find his Juliet apparently dead.  He commits to death.  Juliet awakens from drugged sleep and finds Romeo dead. She too commits to death. This is their “Dark Night of the Soul.”–

 

“O, here

Will I set up my everlasting rest,

And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars

From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!

Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you

The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss

A dateless bargain to engrossing death!”

― William Shak...

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #6: Confront Evil, meet Defeat

‘Look for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man“–Tybalt.   Wm Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

 

Imagine the horror Romeo feels at the moment his best friend Mercutio dies.  In rage, he slays Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin), and is banished from Verona.  In a moment, the play spins from being a light romantic comedy into a tragedy. There is no coming back from this event.   A game for children has become a deadly serious adult matter.

 

Love into hate.   Faith into despair.  Rather than two fa...

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #5: Allies and Powers

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #5: Allies and Powers

 

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

-Romeo, in Act 3, Scene 2, as Mercutio offers to protect Romeo in battle

 

 

 

The fifth step of the Hero’s Journey, “Acquiring Allies and Gaining Powers” is simple acknowledgement that we must learn and grow. Do different things, see the world in different ways.  If you do what you’ve done, you’ll continue to get what yo...

Romeo and Juliet’s Journey #4: The Road of Trials

“The course of true love never did run smooth.“–Midsummer Night’s Dream

 

The fourth step of the Hero’s Journey is called the “Road of Trials.”

 

This is basically everything that the character does to bridge the gap from where they ARE to where they want to BE.

 

In my own life, I was alone, broke, and overweight.    Living in that one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver, Washington.  In order for me to prepare myself to meet and bond with my eventual Soulmate.

 

I had taken one major action: met...