PSYCHOSCAPES: Serena’s Hero Journey as Seen By an Old Person

Photo: Nike

I’m so proud of Serena Williams. She deserves to be celebrated as the victorious hero who conquered the rarified world of tennis, formerly the realm of only the lily-white upper crust. She has stood out, not only because of her class, color, and shape, but by her fashion awareness, rejecting chaste, white tennis outfits for sexy originals in flamboyant color. Last, but not least, rather than preforming sedately and demurely like dancing a waltz, she attacked with the ferocity of a raging bull.

By her audacity, she ripped off the gentile facade of women’s tennis, exposing it for what it really is: “boxing without punches.” That’s how it has been aptly described by ESPN senior writer Howard Bryant: “With the exception of boxing, there is no other sport as viscerally clear and unsentimental about victory and defeat. Two fighters. No help. No timeouts. No teammates. One winner.^⁠1”

Smashing through so many glass ceiling, Serena showcased the female counterpart of the Heroes Journey, formerly the domain of only men. The notion of a “Hero’s Journey” comes from Joseph Campbell, the legendary mythologist, who believed all cultures have certain universal archetypes.

The Hero’s Journey is one of the most prominent of these stories and has several distinct stages: going on an adventure, facing a crisis, emerging triumphant, and then retuning home victorious. An essential component of any such storyline is that they evoke intense responses from the audience.^⁠2

We can certainly observe this in the spectator reaction to her coming home last week to New York for perhaps her last tournament. NPR described it well: “the adoration has been unanimous – strangers high-fiving a Williams winner or an ace, people hugging and standing in celebration. And roaring. Always roaring.”^⁠3 This is because, as psychologist Kobie van Krieken tells us, ”Stories that mainly visualise the hero's journey result in catharsis: strong emotions of pleasure and relief.”^⁠4

By her groundbreaking efforts in all these realms, Serena has made the Hero’s Journey as applicable to women as it is to men. But just leaving it at that would still sell her short. Her journey is more complex, revolutionary, and visionary than that.

Charles Eisenstein sheds light on this, writing an insightful essay about the need for more sophisticated archetypes, incorporating the wisdom that comes from age. He, like me, is long past the time of leaving home to seek his fortune. But, as all of us older folks have found out, our journey didn’t end when we settled down.^⁠5

Shortchanging our life’s journey diminishes us as individuals and, worse, threatens our collective survival: “We have been flogging the Hero’s Journey like a tired horse in hopes that it will drag the wagon of civilizational sense-making a few more decades into the future. But few people are actually excited about a manned mission to Mars, or the latest in implantable computing. Another mode of development calls us.”^⁠6

Absolutely! We can no longer afford more of the same: Defining every problem as an excuse to conquer and dominate, as a war to win at all costs. What we need is a more sophisticated version of our human journey, something more sustainable with loftier ends in mind. As it turns out, Serena has been evolving toward this vision for some time. We were offered our first clue by noticing she won her final title of her career while pregnant with her daughter, Olympia.

As her string of winning 23 Grand Slam single titles comes to an end, her life is not. She wants to have another child and spend more time with her family, but that’s not the end either. On top of her fashion business, she has started Serena Ventures, one of the few high-stakes venture capital(VC) companies run by women and minorities. Better yet she says 78% of her VC’s portfolio "happens to be companies started by women and people of color, because that's who we are."^⁠7

Ultimately, Serena’s Hero’s Journey is one of a peaceful warrior. Arriving at the end of her sports career, she is already evolving into the next stage of her destiny, dedicated to family, relationships, and creating a more sustainable and just society. As usual, she is pulling the rest of us along behind her.

xxx

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