Today, we’re continuing to look at Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan. The author is a journalist, and the book is a memoir describing his lifelong love of surfing.
So, is this a real-life hero’s journey? Does Bill Finnegan get called to a grand adventure that helps him transcend himself, therefore reaching his potential and allowing him to save the world – or, at least make it better? Has he put in enough honest effort?
Let’s ask ourselves if Finnegan ever really returns from the alternate universe of surfing.
In a way, yes: He gives up on his world travels. He becomes a journalist. He moves to New York City. He starts a family. Surfing becomes a hobby that recedes into the past. He can reflect back on his life, and even glean some wisdom from it.
But does he truly become a master of both worlds? Surfing creeps back into his life – and seems to do so on its own terms. Finnegan describes being an adult man with a family and career, living in a decidedly not surfing town, getting phone calls from surfing enthusiasts imploring (bullying?) him to grab his board and get back into the fray.
Does that matter?
Finnegan’s physical return from his travels isn’t a true indication of whether he has come home. A hero’s journey is, first and foremost, a psychological experience. This is all the more true since real human beings like us don’t get to go to magical worlds. And it makes sincere effort all the more important. Hiding in our heads is easy.
Our disappearances occur when we adopt different lifestyles, immerse ourselves in other cultures, experience new things and new people. We then get to branch off into a parallel universe, an alternate timeline. That decision becomes a crossroads after which it can be hard, even impossible, to look back over your shoulder at the old world.
Is that for the best? Our perspectives can change. Our opinions can mature as we gain new knowledge. But change, compared to what? If we never emerge, if we never re-enter the society we once knew, then are we mastering two worlds? Or are we escapists, hiding out in a delusion?
Finnegan doesn’t quite have a conclusion – which makes his story all the more relatable. Real life is never as simple as a fairytale.
***
Finnegan describes a friend he makes later in life. This friend was an accomplished surfer, and Finnegan asks him if he ever panicked when surfing. The response was, “‘Sure. But all you have to do, really, is relax…’ In retrospect, he said, the times when he had thought he was drowning were not in fact such close calls.” (331)
Maybe things aren’t quite as explicitly magical as they are in fairytales. But they’re similarly less dire. We can survive much more than we think, because the blows are less lethal than they seem. And that is knowledge worth gaining. That gives us the freedom to live.
Let’s return to the beginning, where I shared that my favorite thing about Barbarian Days is:
This book demonstrates how difficult it can be for a real person, living in the real world, to understand what a hero’s journey looks like for his own life
Which leads us to our question of the day:
How have you been called to adventure? How did you know that the calling was real?
Thank you for joining me throughout these three installments! Up next: my full analysis!