The quest always begings with a yearning. We feel discontented or confined. Often we do not even have a name for what is missing, but we long for that mysterious something. The urge to seek the grail, to climb the mountain in search of visions, to seek wisdom, to cross new frontiers, to achieve the formerly unachievable in all areas of life seems endemic in the human race. The Explorer responds to the Call to Adventure.

The Explorer

Goal:   To search for a better life or a better way

Fear:   Conformity, becoming entrapped

Task:   Be true to a deeper or higher truth.

Gift:    Autonomy, ambition

STORY TIME

Give some thought to when, where, how, and how much the Explorer Story expresses itself in your life.

1.  How much or how little is the Explorer expressed in your life? Has it been expressed more in the past and present? Do you see it emerging more in your future? Is it expressed more at work, at home, with friends, in dreams or fantasies?
2. Who are some friends or relations who seem influenced by the archetype of the Explorer?
3.  Is there anything you wish were different about the expression of the Explorer in your life?
4.  Since each archetype expresses itself in many different ways, take some time to describe or otherwise portray (e.g. choose favorite heroes and heroines from books) the Explorer as it is expressed or could be expressed in your life. What does or would it look like? How does or would it act? In what setting does or would it feel most at home?

Steven Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” plays like an anthology of the best parts from all the Saturday matinee serials ever made. It takes place in Africa, Nepal, Egypt, at sea and in a secret submarine base. It contains trucks, bulldozers, tanks, motorcycles, ships, subs, Pan Am Clippers, and a Nazi flying wing. It has snakes, spiders, booby traps and explosives. The hero is trapped in a snake pit, and the heroine finds herself assaulted by mummies. The weapons range from revolvers and machineguns to machetes and whips. And there is the supernatural, too, as the Ark of the Covenant triggers an eerie heavenly fire that bolts through the bodies of the Nazis

Spielberg is not trying here for human insights and emotional complexity; he finds those in other films, but in “Raiders” he wants to do two things: make a great entertainment, and stick it to the Nazis.

We know how deeply he feels about the Holocaust. We have seen “Schindler’s List” and we know about his Shoah Project. Those are works of a thoughtful adult. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is the work of Spielberg’s recaptured adolescence, I think; it contains the kind of stuff teenage boys like, and it also perhaps contains the daydreams of a young Jewish kid who imagines blowing up Nazis real good. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by Philip Kaufman, George Lucas and an uncredited Spielberg, whose movie is great fun on the surface — one of the classic entertainments — and then has a buried level.

Consider. The plot hinges on Hitler’s desire to recapture the long-lost ark. “Hitler’s a nut on the subject,” Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is told by a government recruiter. “Crazy. He’s obsessed with the occult.” But not just anything occult. The ark, if found, would be the most precious Jewish artifact imaginable — the chest that held the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses on the mountain top. “An army which carries the ark before it is invincible,” Indy says; Hitler wants to steal the heritage of the Jews and use it for his own victory.

Throughout the film, there is a parade of anti-Nazi symbolism and sly religious satire, as when a desperate Indy grabs the hood ornament of a Mercedes truck, and it snaps off. And when a Nazi torturer grabs a sacred relic and it burns a stigmata into his hand. When the ark is being transported in the hold of a Nazi ship, inside a stout lumber crate, the swastika and other Nazi markings spontaneously catch fire and are obliterated. A Nazi officer, uneasy about opening the ark, says: “I am uncomfortable with the thought of this Jewish ritual.” And of course when the spirit of the ark manifests itself, it’s as a writhing column of fire that skewers the Nazis. (“Keep your eyes closed,” Indy desperately tells his sidekick, although one assumes the holy fire would know friend from foe.) There is even a quiet in-joke in the character of Belloq (Paul Freeman), the Frenchman who tries to play both sides against the middle, just as Occupied France did.

Nazis were favorite villains of Saturday serials, prized more for their costumes and accents than for their evil beliefs. Spielberg here makes manifest their values, and then destroys them: “Raiders of the Lost Ark” has all the qualities of an exuberant serial, plus a religious and political agenda. That Spielberg places his message in the crevices of the action makes it all the more effective. “Raiders” may have an impersonal superstructure, but its foundations are personal, and passionate.

The movie is just plain fun. The Kasdan screenplay is a construction of one damn thing on top of another. As the movie opens, Indy brushes aside a web taller than a man, is assaulted by giant spiders, narrowly eludes a booby trap and then another, leaps across a bottomless pit, is nearly crushed by a lowering slab, is betrayed by his companion, leaps the pit again, is pursued by a gigantic boulder that rolls behind him, is surrounded by natives with spears and dart guns, leaps into a river, crawls into an airplane and finds a giant snake in the cockpit. “I hate snakes,” he says.

The movie hurtles from one crisis to another. After the struggle for control of the flying wing, for example (after, that is, a fist fight, gunshots, gasoline explosions and a villain who is made mincemeat by a propeller), Indy is abruptly told, “The Ark! They’re taking it on a truck to Cairo!” Indy replies, “Where is it?” And that’s all the exposition necessary to get us from the flying wing scene to the famous truck chase.

Harrison Ford is the embodiment of Indiana Jones — dry, fearless, and as indestructible as a cartoon coyote. The correct casting was not as obvious in 1980, when the film was being prepared, as it is now. He had starred in “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” as Han Solo, a laconic man of action, but his other credits were a mixed bag. What he proved in the “Star Wars” movies, and went on to prove again and again, is that he can supply the strong, sturdy center for action nonsense. In a scene where everything is happening at once, he knows that nothing unnecessary need be happening on his face, in his voice, or to his character. He is the fulcrum, not the lever.

Karen Allen plays Marian, his sidekick, a gutsy broad who has the duty of following the hero from one side of the globe to the other, while in constant danger. (She is nearly burned alive twice, shot at, faces down a King Cobra and is left tied to a stake by Indy because “If I take you out of here they’ll start combing the place for us.”) The female lead in an Indiana Jones movie is sort of an honorary boy, no more sexual than the girls in boys’ adventure magazines, although Marian can more than take care of herself and is not helpless in the face of danger.

The special effects, astonishing at the time, now look a little cheesy; accustomed to digital perfection, we can see when model planes are being used, when dark clouds are being put in the sky by an optical printer, when the deadly rays of the ark are being superimposed on the action. Lucas of course went back and tidied up the effects in “Star Wars,” but I hope Spielberg never touches “Raiders” because the effects, just as they are, help set the tone of the movie. A serial should look a little hasty. It’s a Boy’s Own Adventure, a whiz-bang slamarama, a Bruised Forearm movie (you squeeze the arm of your date every time something startles you). It’s done with a kind of heedless joy. Spielberg was old enough (34) to have the clout to make the film, and young enough to remember why he wanted to. All of the reasons why he wanted to.

The Power of Your Story Seminar

Amsterdam 17 April

You will examine with Peter de Kuster, founder of The Power of Your Story the way we tell stories about ourselves to ourselves — and, most important, the way we can change those stories to transform our business and personal lives.

“Your story is your life,” says Peter. As human beings, we continually tell ourselves stories — of success or failure; of power or victimhood; stories that endure for an hour, or a day, or an entire lifetime. We have stories about ourselves, our creative business, our customers ; about what we want and what we’re capable of achieving. Yet, while our stories profoundly affect how others see us and we see ourselves, too few of us even recognize that we’re telling stories, or what they are, or that we can change them — and, in turn, transform our very destinies.

Telling ourselves stories provides structure and direction as we navigate life’s challenges and opportunities, and helps us interpret our goals and skills. Stories make sense of chaos; they organize our many divergent experiences into a coherent thread; they shape our entire reality. And far too many of our stories, says Peter, are dysfunctional, in need of serious editing. First, he asks you to answer the question, “In which areas of my life is it clear that I cannot achieve my goals with the story I’ve got?” He then shows you how to create new, reality-based stories that inspire you to action, and take you where you want to go both in your work and personal life.

Our capacity to tell stories is one of our profoundest gifts. Peter’s approach to creating deeply engaging stories will give you the tools to wield the power of storytelling and forever change your business and personal life.