(6 minute read)

Or More Importantly, What The Hell Are We Doing?

In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted.

Carl Jung

There is more in a human life than our theories of it allow.

James Hillman, The Soul’s Code, Random House, 1996

Recently I found myself in conversation with an individual whom I had not seen since my retirement. The idea that I was retired at such a young age was, to say the least, a surprise.

“But you’re only …,” his brain calculating my age.

I cut him off. “Yeah, I know.”

He let the thought settle, finally asking, “Well, are you doing anything to keep yourself busy, because you know …?”

“Yes, I’m keeping busy.

“With what? he pressed.

“Reading. I also paint. A little writing.”

“Writing? What kind of writing? Fiction, or …?”

“No. Philosophy mostly. A little theology. My degrees are such.”

“Philosophy?” the tone indicating he liked the idea. “What kind?”

What kind? It was an odd question. As if I was being asked what brand of car I drive. I was about to be judged for the brand or school of philosophy I prescribed too. The problem is, I don’t really have a philosophy that completely works for me. With one exception (stoicism) I don’t really quite “fit in” with any that I’ve studied.

My intellectual pursuits and degrees mirror a personal search for questions that have long bothered me. What am I supposed to do? Where do I fit into this world? And most importantly, Who am I? These and a lot of other questions were bothering me “like a splinter in my brain.” There just “had to be more to life.”

In a prior article I described my experience tinkering with the idea of studying and teaching in the discipline. There are countless philosophies that have gone in and out of vogue over the centuries. This fact told me one thing.

There is no one unified thought on philosophy or theology. Nobody has truly been able to figure this whole thing out to the satisfaction of everyone. At times, I can suffer from an inflated sense of self. However, I had no ambition to be the person to devise a theory to explain everything. Understanding “the masters” was hard enough.

It was during my final semester of my graduate level classes that I came to the conclusion. Philosophy is an interesting pursuit. I found some answers to what I was looking for. Yet, “doing” philosophy, sitting around with colleagues in a mental circle-jerk wasn’t for me. As a full-time gig I was out.

Sometimes knowing something “isn’t” for you is just as important as knowing what “is.”

Hillman’s Acorn Theory

Jungian psychologist, James Hillman, wrote in his best seller, The Soul’s Code, what he referred to as the Acorn Theory. It supposes that each of us has a built in purpose or sense of fate. Like every potential oak tree found in a lowly acorn, this purpose waits to be revealed inside of us.

Some of us are aware of our fate almost instantaneously. But for most of us, we flounder until we eventually become aware of it by stumbling upon it.

Hillman cites the lives of celebrities as a way for us to relate and be inspired. He chose celebrities as examples because they are familiar to us. The stories excite, guide, and warn us allowing our imagination of our own fate to be founded.

(We use “celebrities” as examples) …Not to pull them down to our level, but to lift ours, making our world less impossible through familiarity with theirs …These personifications of heightened imagination burn right into the soul and are its teachers. Not only the hero and hero-worship, but tragic figures too…

Hillman

He chooses the well-known because their stories provide a sense of hope. If they can find their purpose, fate, or meaning for existence, there is hope we can find ours, too. Knowing who we are in this world might lead us to discover it.

By nature we are prone to hero-worship and Hillman knows this. Yet, he warns that placing idols on pedestals becomes an empty exercise. It does nothing but create a class divide. Hillman writes we can at least appreciate the talents of an individual and their very human story. This helps to inspire us on our own personal journey.

In one such example, Hillman tells the story of American film star, Judy Garland. She comes to her own discovery of purpose or fate. At the age of two, she sat transfixed as she watched The Blue Sisters perform live music on stage. A solo was sung by the youngest Blue Sister. It delighted the audience. Young Judy turned to her father and asked, “Can I do that, Daddy?”

Garland’s sister Virginia reports that “even in her two-year-old head, she already knew exactly what she wanted (in life).”

Hillman

At age two Garland was like the oak in the acorn. She would eventually grow up to be a worldwide stage and film-screen star. But the star “was already there in the two-year-old.”

Austin Butler is an American actor and Golden Globe winner. At the age of 31, he is in the midst of a bright career. A child actor on the Nickelodeon and Disney channels, Butler suffered from extreme shyness. He would beg his mother to order food for him at a restaurant. The thought of talking to a server terrified him.

One day the oak began emerging from the acorn. At the age of 12, Butler found himself as an extra on a TV production.

Up to that point I didn’t have a thing that I really could express myself with and somehow I ended up on a set …seeing the process, seeing the entire machine of how filming works and being around other actors. Suddenly, I felt like I found my tribe.

Butler, Hollywood reporter, Hollywood Roundtable, 2023

Most of us aren’t as lucky to have our destinies suddenly appear with such dramatic flair. We would be hard pressed to come up with a competing story. Nonetheless, we do have a story. We’ll see in the next few articles how glimpses of our destinies are being provided. Some destinies may have been stifled. Others haven’t had the adequate environment in which to take root and grow.

It is easy to quickly dismiss these stories. Many categorize them as events that happen only to “chosen and extraordinary” god-like human beings. You and I may never reach the heights of Mount Hollywood. Yet can we agree that each of us are born with a call to an individual destiny? Whether you are a brain surgeon or a car mechanic, this remains true.

Can we agree that it is possible to live a life “knowing” that we are fulfilling that destiny? Can we agree that destiny is not meant for humans who transform into gods? There is no such thing. It is for humans who transform into fully human-beings.

Read The Acorn Theory, Pt. 2