Somewhere between Frankl’s search for meaning and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs lies the path of the hero. He manages to see his way past scratching out simple sustenance from his patch of dirt to pursue something great. He’s mapped out his story as mission and followed his bliss.

But sometimes, the laws of attraction aren’t all that attractive. For that matter, the laws of physics aren’t even all that physical and the hero, following his path and his bliss ends up walking in circles or hopelessly lost.

Perhaps it is just part of the monomyth, crossing the first threshold, entering the belly of the whale or hiking along the road of trials. Perhaps it is just watching the Sisyphusian rock roll back down the hill or the Promethian eagles returning to eat his liver. Perhaps he manages to find an existential moment of pleasure as he watches the rock roll back down the hill or feels the breeze from the beating wings of the eagle.

If the hero falls, perhaps he will be lucky enough to have a young Zarathustra come and carry his dead body around for a while. It won’t bring the hero back to life, but it might help others make sense of the failing.

Perhaps some balladeer will watch and put the story to song. Andy Hawk is one such balladeer. When he isn’t singing “covers ranging from The Beatles to Johnny Cash to the Cure to Wild Cherry to John Denver” to his current and former high school English and Journalism students, he’s singing about “Strippers in Toledo off Highway 51...Peeling Reptile Land in Pennsylvania...[and] Elvis the monkey at Affie's Ice Cream stand” in “Another Roadside Attraction”.

In “New Orleans” he sings

The typewriter suffers again and again
I ain't got no money, but, man, I got rain...

I walk through the streets, shirt soaked to the skin
I live out of focus and drink with my sins
Musicians move on and the artists starve
And the novelists just miss the mark

Currently you can find him playing various weekend nights at The King’s Court Tavern in Leesburg, VA, The Beautiful South in Hamilton VA, or the Casanel Vineyards in Leesburg or you can pick up his CDs on CD Baby.

It might not help you find that great job you were hoping for, an agent for your novel or a label for your songs, but it just might ease the pain as you watch the bolder roll back down the hill or the liver devouring eagle return.