This book gives my perspective of the whole story and what I learned from it. You can decide which of my decisions or actions were foolish, which were too risky, which were just bad luck, and which, if any, were wise. Then you may ask yourself:
What would I have done?
Although the threat of death serves as the catalyst in this book, the focus is on life. We will celebrate life, the joys of life, all of our lives, here and now, and into the future. For yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift—that is why it is called the present.
As I shared my story in keynote presentations and workshops, and as I wrote this book, a question emerged: Had my misadventure been a quest, in a mythical, yet real, sense? Had I been lured into a personal quest by marvelous snowflakes, when the weather changed from a dreary, rainy fall day into a winter wonderland?
My parents were from Norway, so I was raised on Norse myths and fairy tales. In grade school we studied Beowulf and the tales of King Arthur and the quest for the Holy Grail. In college, we studied Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the ultimate Christian allegory. During one summer I attended the University of Oslo Summer School and studied Norse myths and Icelandic sagas.
In 1989, my world of myths was expanded, yet paradoxically focused and simplified, when I attended a workshop at The Esalen Institute in California. The workshop celebrated the life and writings of Joseph Campbell, based on his book Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell wrote that there is a commonality of myths throughout time and place. He also noted that there are generally three phases of the quest in mythology: separation, initiation, and return. These phases, these rites of passage, may be started by a “call to adventure,” and evolve through a series of thresholds: the possibility of meeting interesting characters and of gaining supernatural aids or assistance, then rescue and finally return. The quest takes the hero into a new and unknown world of trials and testing, and back home.
The hero always travels solo.
However, a true hero who returns from a quest dies as an ordinary person and is reborn as a new or eternal person. The returning hero has changed and then lives a new life, for he then lives in two worlds.
It would be presumptuous for me to equate my three-day misadventure and the months of follow-up physical recovery, introspection, and resolution to the great mythical quests. The classic quests include the tribulation of Odysseus, who sailed the Mediterranean for years; the struggles of Gautama the Buddha, who spent much of a lifetime to gain enlightenment; and the sufferings of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and was chained to Mt.Elbrus. For every hero—even an antihero—there is not only an initial call to adventure; there may be a final call to share the new message gained on the quest. It may be a message that falls on deaf, even angry, ears.
Although my own experience was on a much smaller scale than these mythical quests, I share my message in this book. I address my misadventure as both a physical and spiritual quest, as well as a key source of lessons learned that will impact the remainder of my life. They will also redefine my view of death and contribute to a deeper understanding of my persona, the view I like to present to the public. But above all, the lessons provide a deep exploration into my true nature, the genuine me.
I share my own Journey Into the Self.
It has been said that in the entire world, over all the ages, there are only two story themes:
Local person leaves town.
Stranger comes to town.
This is a story of both.
“The longest journey is the journey inward.”
—Dag Hammarskjold
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