The very first sign of a potential hero's journey is that he or she must leave home, the familiar, which is something that may not always occur to someone in the first half of life. (In fact, many people have not left home by their thirties today, and most never leave the familiar at all!) If you have spent many years building your particular tower of success and self-importance—your personal “salvation project,” as Thomas Merton called it—or have successfully constructed your own superior ethnic group, religion, or “house,” you won't want to leave it.
