LPKaster
I had an interesting conversation with an elderly woman today. This woman was unhappy and exasperated with her difficult daily conditions. I tried my best to help her, with her walker, get through the door and into the office, where she wanted to make a payment. While we sat together, she complained that she had to travel by bus and transfer twice to get to this office, and that when she got there the charge for making a payment in person was $3.50, in spite of the fact that she had to make the journey to begin with. I felt like I wanted to help her.
I gently suggested that it was possible now to make her payment electronically, over the phone she was carrying. She said “No! I don’t trust computers and never will! I refuse to have anything to do with them ’cause they’re dangerous and trying to take over the world,” not realizing she held one in her hand! The next few minutes I spent with her, she did calm down, finally, and began to smile a little. Within our discussion of how we both got to where we currently are, she used the parable of lighting a gas stove. She said “If you light a gas stove properly, it will cook your food.” ”But if you don’t- you’ll get burnt!” I added, myself, “Indeed, if you don’t handle it correctly, it could blow us both to smithereeens!” She smiled at this, “I just can’t get caught up with things as they are, and I’m afraid it’s too late. ” I asked her “How old are you?” and discovered she was only a couple of years older than me.
Myth #10: The Golden Age
Parthenon reproduction in Nashville Tennessee
This myth is widespread. People fall into it as a matter “of course” whenever something of the present situation doesn’t suit them. It used to be expressed by saying “In the Good Old Days” things were better. Some time in the distant past things were just better. If we could only return to the old ways we would be safe and happy, and prosperous.
New myth: We can never go back. The circumstances that led us to where we are, though often cyclical in nature, are never exactly the same. The best we can do is observe, predict and prepare for the conditions as they appear based on what we think we know. If we look to the past we can better understand the conditions we find ourselves in, but we must realize the new factors and do our best to work with them. On a personal level; complaints are useless. It changes nothing.
Myth #7: The Great Man (or Woman)
There is someone who has the answer to everything. If we can find this person, they will show us the way and save us from certain destruction. This person has the charisma and luck that we all lack, and if we do our best to emulate their activity, we can be more like them and ride their pony. But only to the degree we do exactly the same thing- whatever that is. In the person of a religious or political leader, they change the course of history. Some are not even thought to be human, but an alien or divine interloper. Sometimes through their own personal death or destruction, they keep us from destroying ourselves. Other people are called a “genius” because their path seems less thorny and their efforts appear light. If we only had the accident of lucky birth -perhaps a genetic or supernatural gift- we might be that person. But we don’t.
World Religious Leaders
New myth: No two individuals are alike. The course of each journey is presented with an entirely different story and set of skills. The course of time, and similarity of our common natures as a species is repetitive and cyclical. Yet there are also a vast amount of differences, a deep chasm between us. We can observe each ther at a distance, but never really cross. We can only imagine and hope to recreate some of the most successful parts of a person we admire, but we have to work with what we are given. We, in the end, have to save ourselves and create ourselves, and let others judge the outcome -if they are moved to do so.
I created this file as a reference for those who live by the common mythologies and never realize how much they live by them and never thought to question them. I invite the gentle reader to examine my new myths and substitute their own. I am extremely interested: what are these personal myths? What are the widespread cultural myths and how do they go on; unquestioned and unnoticed. Are they self-evident, or are they the result of indoctrination? You decide.
My Granddaughter Minnie, and me
When I think of the elderly woman I mentioned earlier, I am recalled to an agreement I made when I was encouraged by teachers and friends to examine mythologies. I agreed that the only life worth living is an awakened life, a life of attention and flexibility. I agreed to move with the current. We must rise on the tide of change, to greet the future, and make it our own.
