Where Wonder Lives: From Paestum to The Power of Myth

Remembering Bill Moyers and how awe—not checklists—makes travel transformative

Bill Moyers passed away this week at the age of 91. While he was a journalist by profession, he meant something more to me because of his interview series with Joseph Campbell, "The Power of Myth."

Scene from “The Power of Myth”

I was introduced to it by Dr. Michael Smith, who was my high school history teacher. I was lucky enough to have Dr. Smith for two consecutive years, and his love of history fueled my own. Maybe Dr. Smith was just tired of teaching the week he checked out the television and VCR from the AV room and played The Power of Myth, but it had a profound impact on me.

As a teenager, I was in a valley between the wonder I’d felt as a child—imagining stories for my Cabbage Patch Kids during hours of play—and the adulthood where travel would eventually give me supersized shots of wonder. What I learned from watching Moyers' interview with Campbell was that to be happy, you must develop a sense of awe and wonder.

If you’re unfamiliar with Joseph Campbell, he was a beloved professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who studied myths from all over the world. His talent was in noticing the connections between them. He explained how art, music, and ritual are regional interpretations of the same quiet hum of the universe that everyone hears, rendered with colors, symbols, and materials that make sense for wherever and whenever one is on the planet.

Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces famously inspired George Lucas to create the Star Wars trilogy. Since then, countless writers and filmmakers have pored over Campbell’s books to shape their stories around the universal theme of the hero’s journey.

During my museum career, I learned that traditional academics didn’t take Campbell seriously. The Cloisters used to offer a free gallery talk every Saturday, and I had the opportunity to speak about a wide range of fascinating topics, from medieval cooking to secret codes embedded in paintings. When I proposed a gallery talk about Campbell, it was turned down. I was told he hadn’t completed a PhD and wasn’t considered a serious scholar. I didn’t push, but I never got over that—and it was part of what later nudged me toward the world of travel. All these years later, the lesson I still carry with me from The Power of Myth was that life can grind you down, but wonder can fill you up in an instant.

Though there was a time when I wanted to see every place on the globe, I can stay forever in Italy, because it continues to offer experiences that expand both my mind and heart. It’s why I hate hit-and-run tourism. It’s why I will always roll my eyes at the term “lifestyle trip,” meant to describe travel that skips cultural experiences in favor of signature photo ops.

I hear that universal hum when I wander the temple grounds at Paestum and marvel at the scale of structures built nearly 3,000 years ago to serve as homes for goddesses—all that grandeur and effort…all to celebrate a mystery.

I see it on the face of one of the handmaidens in Ghirlandaio’s Birth of the Virgin at Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In a commission meant to show off the wealth and piety of a powerful Renaissance family, her soft smile as she cradles a newborn baby illustrates the word “transcend.”

And I saw it on the face of my friend Gina from high school, who has twice let me plan trips to find her family’s roots in Italy, when she tasted a meatball made with love and sincerity, and was moved to tears.

So, thank you, Dr. Smith, for showing us those interviews and being such a fantastic teacher. And thank you, Bill Moyers, for sharing Joseph Campbell with the world. Let’s all do our best to take their advice and follow our bliss.

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Danielle Oteri’s Italy is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to Italy. If you value a cultural perspective on Italy and want fascinating stories that you’re unlikely to find in the travel media, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.