Go Out to Know What’s Within

This year as part of my daily journal writing and reflection, I’ve been reading “A Year With Rilke: Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke”. Here is a recent entry:

I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?

I reflect on the meaning of poems and observations like this in terms of my own life, but I also look at them for how they may help me think about Story.

In these eight lines, Rilke speaks to the central question that lies at the heart of all stories: Who am I? A falcon? A storm? A great song? That is a dynamic every writer hits on in their stories, whether intentional or not, recognized or not. Characters in search of identity, of knowing who they are, what they will become, that is innate to Story.

However Rilke presents a different way of looking at Story. Writers tend to think of Beginning, Middle, and End as a linear construction, a line which starts here and ends there:

Beginning →→→→→→→→→→→ Middle →→→→→→→→→→→→ End

What if we think of Story as a circle? I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. Indeed there is such take on The Hero’s Journey, its three movements of Separation, Initiation, and Return:

This structure is a circle. The Protagonist is called to an adventure, she goes out, separated from her Ordinary World, journeying into a New World. The many challenges and trials she experiences there initiate her not only in different ways of seeing the universe, but also in compelling her to go within her own Self, to get in touch with, learn about, and embrace her Authentic Nature.

Ovid writes, “The seeds of change lie within.”

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy always knew there was “no place like home,” but she has to separate from her Old Life — go out — and experience everything she does in the land of Oz in order to “learn it for herself” as Glinda tells her at the end of the story — to know what’s within.

In Casablanca, Rick has to separate — go out — from his life as a isolated, cynical bar owner and experience everything he does in his rekindled love affair with Ilsa in order to resurrect his idealism and connection to the greater good — to know what’s within.

In Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke has to separate — go out — from his life as a moisture farmer and experience everything he does in his Death Star adventure in order to learn the ways of the Force and arouse his Jedi ‘blood’ — to know what’s within.

The whole point of the Hero’s Journey per Campbell is transformation and it’s not just about change, it’s about the Hero bringing that new self-understanding back home as a benefit to the larger community. Whether that means a literal return home as with Dorothy… or the beginning of a “beautiful friendship” as with Rick and Renault… or discovering his rightful place in the universe as a Jedi knight as with Luke Skywalker, the point is that in their metamorphosis journey, the Protagonist discovers Who They Are and What They Will Become.

In other words, we may think of Story as a “widening circle” in which the Protagonist goes out to know what is within.

The experiences in the Plot (Physical World) take the Protagonist on a widening adventure, while in the Internal World (Psychological Journey), the Protagonist zeroes in on the essence of their Self Identity to determine if they are “a falcon, a storm, or a great song.”

So we may think of Story as a line.

We may also think of Story as a circle… to go out to know what’s within.

Thoughts? Hit me up with a Reply.

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