Even unlikely hero’s can experience a hero’s journey. In An Outlaw Makes It Home: The Awakening of a Spiritual Revolutionary, author Eli Jaxon-Bear frames a memoir modeled by Joseph Campbell’s the hero’s journey. In so doing, he details, in vivid detail, his experiences with sex, drugs, protest, self-discovery, enlightenment, and more.
I was provided a review copy, and am sharing my thoughts here.
The Hero’s Journey and You
Before I delve too deeply into the review, I do want to state the obvious; that it is not the type of book I typically review. I say that, pointing out that it is not aimed at developing Christian living, leadership, or addressing common social matters. That’s not to say it’s not relevant, nor is it to suggest that I found it less relevant.
On the contrary, I find it extraordinary enlightening because the subject matter is something I am less attuned. Jason-Bear takes us from his earliest remembrances of youth through the moment he found genuine contentment and purpose,
As I read, I often called it “A Catcher in the Rye” meets a real-life “Forrest Gump.”
In An Outlaw Makes It Home: The Awakening of a Spiritual Revolutionary, author Eli Jaxon-Bear frames a memoir that reads like “A Catcher in the Rye” meets a real-life “Forrest Gump.”
The First Steps as a Budding Revolutionary
I related quickly to Jaxon-Bear’s early life. Like me, he had a youth of relatively little parental supervision. And also like me, his favorite childhood book was The Pokey Little Puppy. I had read it dozens of times as a child and still reflect fondly upon.
A key take-a-way is how themes of our impressionable youth, are often foreshadowing of recurring life themes. It’s no exception for the author, as his life as a kid bullied by both kids and authority figures within his multi-ethnic New York neighborhood. It’s no wonder that he begins a life dedicated to civil rights and equality.
He exerts his independence and possession of a mind well beyond his years early life. At 10 years-old, he makes a conscious decision to not have children of his own rather than to subject them to a generational cycle of fighting and hardship.
And he then makes another conscious decision, electing to pursue a short and reward filled life over a long and wisdom filled one. Though Jaxon-Bear makes no such allusion to it, this sort of decision had me reflecting and pondering the book of Ecclesiastes.
Is Religion a Lie?
Jaxon-Bear expresses a belief that most of religion to be a lie. He also explains his disillusionment with spiritual gurus as they turn their way of being into propaganda for profit. Our modern culture would refer to this as “selling out.”
Meanwhile, as he explores and tries to reconcile these observations, Jaxon-Bear is coming of age while in an environment that’s heavily influenced by Mafia men. He’s money by smuggling and playing poker. And then his life is changed, with the world finally making sense, when he is introduced to Bob Dylan’s music at a concert.
Kennedy is later assassinated shortly after that moment, and world dissipated. He falls out of love with the American dream, to the point of feeling betrayed, much like the religions he’s found to be hypocritical and fabricated.
So he sets out on his journey, a quest to change the world.
An Insecure Hero’s Journey
In the narrative details, Jaxon-Bear Spends details how much of his life was pointed toward trying to understand his cowardice and insecurities. He details extensive drug use and dealing, countless sexual partners, whims, journeys, and longing. Along the way, there is communal living and a quest for spiritual enlightenment.
Then, following a huge drug bust that literally required dump trucks for hauling away his crops, Jaxon-Bear surveys the political and social landscapes. With Reagan’s conservatism taking center stage and a longing for connection, he turns to a new direction in life.
With literally nothing to his name, he begins anew. What follows is a quest spanning several countries, a search for significance, many teachers, and more.
An Outlaw Makes It Home – Final Thoughts
Eli Jaxon-Bear spends much of his life searching for significance. He ultimately finds it. And he invites readers to relive the journey that brought him to what might have been thought an unlikely destination. It’s not a tome of Christian Living, nor is one that seeks to glorify God in a typical sense. There are frequent references to “Mother Earth” and those who are put off by ideas of meditation and spiritual living not associated with Christ might want to avoid the book.
However, those who are content to know and understand ways of living beyond their holy huddles might find an opportunity to better understand their fellow humans. It’s not a matter of tolerance, nor is it a glorification of drugs, immoral living or otherwise.
It’s a matter of gaining perspective. Something we all would all be well to better assimilate into our own lifestyles.
About Eli Jaxon-Bear
Eli Jaxon-Bear is the author of An Outlaw Makes It Home, Wake Up and Roar, Sudden Awakening, and Fixation to Freedom. He has worked as a mailboy, dishwasher, steel-worker, teacher and organic farmer. Jaxon-Bear was a community organizer with VISTA in Chicago and Detroit before entering a doctoral program at the Graduate School of International Studies in Denver, Colorado. He has been living with his partner and wife since 1976. They currently reside in Ashland, Oregon. Eli meets people and teaches through the Leela Foundation.