Magazine-Winter-2025 - Flipbook - Page 17
THE CA P STO N E
Today, Parker teaches
composition, literature and
creative writing, along with
an Honors College and Blount
Scholars course that explores
the hero’s journey—the classic
pattern of call, resistance
and transformation found in
storytelling. His students read
Tolkien, Jung and Campbell, and
they also study themselves.
“A lot of freshmen and
sophomores come in shellshocked,” Parker said. “They’re
trying to find their footing.
The hero’s journey gives them
language for what they’re
already living.”
For Parker, that language
became personal long before
he ever taught it. Just after he
and Christy married and he
was preparing to start graduate
school, his kidneys failed.
Infections left him bedridden for
months, and recovery required
a transplant from his mother.
The experience changed him in
every possible way.
“It was a season in hell,” he
said. “When it was over, the
hardest part was getting back
up—just getting out of bed.”
During that long recovery,
Parker found himself drawn
to writers who wrestled with
paralysis and purpose like
Beckett, Kafka and Camus.
“I was fascinated by the
will to move, or the inability to
move,” he said. What ultimately
lifted him was Tolkien. “The
hobbits keep putting one foot in
front of the other. That appealed
to me deeply, even on the level
of survival.”
The idea of motion before
motivation shapes much of his
teaching now. “Sometimes you
just have to lead with your feet,”
Parker tells his students. “Don’t
To take a step forward
when it would be easier
to stay still, that’s the
beginning of the story.”
wait until you feel ready. Go to
class, walk into the room and
take the step. Your mind and
heart will catch up.”
Parker often sees that
philosophy come alive during
the study abroad programs
he leads in New Zealand and
Norway. The courses center
on adventure literature and
mythology, but the real lessons,
he said, happen in train stations
and ferry lines.
“Travel forces you out of
your comfort zone. You face
little trials and humiliations like
language barriers and missed
connections. Out of that comes
both confidence and humility.
That combination leads to selfacceptance.”
That sense of proportion,
knowing one’s place in a wide
world, has become a guiding
theme for Parker. He points to
the closing lines of The Hobbit,
when Gandalf tells Bilbo that
though he has fulfilled a great
prophecy, he is still just “a
small hobbit in a wide world.”
Bilbo’s reply, “Thank goodness,”
captures the paradox Parker
loves. “You matter, but you’re
not the center of everything,” he
said. “There’s relief in realizing
that. It’s freeing.”
His students, he believes,
need that reminder as much
as anyone. Many arrive
overwhelmed by expectation,
self-criticism or the relentless
mirror of social media. The
hero’s journey gives them a map
back to meaning.
“It’s life or death, literal or
figurative,” Parker said. “To take
a step forward when it would
be easier to stay still, that’s the
beginning of the story.”
More than two decades after
earning his MFA, Parker still
writes poetry and still calls
Tuscaloosa home. He and
Christy have three children,
and their oldest, Noah, is about
to graduate from college.
“The older I get, the more
I see the truth in Flannery
O’Connor’s wonderful muse,”
he said.
“Divine grace mysteriously
infuses everything. You learn
how to say ‘yes’ to it, how to
say ‘no’ to the thousand-pound
gollum on your shoulder, and
how just to go.”
When students ask what they
should remember once they’ve
made the decision to begin,
Parker keeps his advice simple.
“Remember how it felt the
last time you tried,” he said.
“Good things always follow. Even
if you don’t feel ready, even if
you don’t want to, take the step
anyway. That’s where every
hero’s journey begins.”
WINTER 2025
15
