On a tombstone in California we can read – “Buffy Anne Summers, 1981 to 2001. Beloved Sister, Devoted Friend.  She saved the world – a Lot.”

Who is this Buffy?  For seven seasons on TV Buffy the Vampire Slayer lived the saying – "Into every generation a slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one.. She is the Slayer." 

In 1949, Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero With A Thousand Faces in which he showed how thru the ages men and women have been Chosen and sent on quests that will change their lives.  This notion of the chosen continues today in our popular culture.

On TV, many of the Chosen Ones are young women. Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Joan of Arcadia provide us with examples of the three main stages of their heroic journeys.

The first stage is the departure when the chosen one accepts the task – usually under protest .  Both Buffy and Joan having recently moved, look to lead normal . But  Buffy finds, despite changing cities, that she is still the Chosen One;  Joan’s familiar world quickly becomes unfamiliar when God chooses her to – as he puts it  –  do a few things for me. When Joan tells God “I’m not religious”, God replies “It’s not about religion, it’s about fulfilling your nature.” 

The second stage – known as The Initiation – centers around the quest itself where much happens quite quickly – including – ready?

– they have a mentor – for Buffy librarian Rupert Giles is her watcher; for Joan it is God himself who appears to her in various guises –  as a teenage boy whom Joan is embarrassed to find she has a crush on, as a seven year old girl,  as the school lunch lady, as a telephone lineman, as a TV newscaster and many more.

– they find friends – Buffy’s circle of friends  – the Scooby Gang  – begins with Xander, Willow and Cordelia and soon includes Anya, a former demon,  Oz, a werewolf, Faith , another Slayer, as well as the vampires Angel and Spike.  Joan’s friends are – shall we say – much more human – and include Grace, Sprague and Adam.

– they face conflicts but where Joan’s are mundane – taking the school “bad” boy to  a dance,  Buffy faces a myriad of horrors including The Silent Men, The First Evil and a variety of demons and vampires

– they encounter love  – Buffy’s loves vampires Angel and Spike – of Angel Buffy says – “I told him that I loved him and I kissed him and I killed him” – and she did! – just like a scene from a film noir.  Joan’s heartthrob’s Adam, whose meticulous sculpture she destroys as one of her tasks for God.

– as the journey nears completion the chosen one undergoes a death and rebirth of some sort.   Buffy actually dies twice and is resurrected; Joan undergoes a symbolic death with a crisis of faith during her hospitalization for Lyme disease.

The chosen ones return to find both themselves and their worlds changed. Buffy accepts her ability to lead the potential chosen ones in the final battle against The First Evil.  What it is for Joan remains a mystery since the series was cancelled just as Joan meets another Chosen one – a young man Chosen not by God but by the Devil.

TV shows where men are the chosen, think of Supernatural. The Winchester brothers – Dean and Sam – for the past six years and counting – have been defeating demons, and with the help of a wayward angel named Castiel have tried to accomplish their task – preventing the end of the world. Then there is Eli Stone a lawyer chosen to be a modern day prophet whose tasks are revealed in visions of George Michaels singing.

Now if someone could find a Chosen One whose task is to lead us through the vagaries of all those features on our smart phones, I for one would be very happy.