The Hero's Journey is Bullshit

The ephemeral nature of emotions and time

Last night I read the short story “Bee Honey” by Yashimoto Banana (Banana Yashimoto, in English ordering). I have this big book of Japanese Stories and was trying to read them in chronological order but then flipped to Banana’s page, to her story. Many years ago (but not too many) I was a thirty-something undergrad at Syracuse University. I moved to Syracuse after trying (and very much failing) to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (a story for another time). Before that, I’d lived in Berkeley and worked in SF as a nanny, and before that, I’d worked in Seattle as a nanny. Before that, I’d been a firefighter in Alaska, and that was the summer my mom died.

I really love San Francisco. I was homeless there as a teenager, and that’s when I first started really knowing the city. Its sidewalks and awnings and all its nice restaurants which I only saw from the outside, my reflection painted on their bright, clean windows, which also revealed their patrons, spooning soup into their mouths, daintily…