The other powers of myth
Dec. 25th, 2008 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brightrosefox"A good myth is always true, even if it isn't real." -Ursula Vernon
"Belief in the story makes it a fact, regardless of the amount of truth involved." -Robert Wuhl
"Folktales are usually an inheritance from family or homeland. But what if you are a child enduring a continual, grueling, dangerous journey? No adult can steel such a child against the outcast's fate: the endless slurs and snubs, the threats, the fear. What these determined children do is snatch dark and bright fragments of Halloween fables, TV news, and candy-colored Bible-story leaflets from street-corner preachers, and like birds building a nest from scraps, weave their own myths. The "secret stories" are carefully guarded knowledge, never shared with older siblings or parents for fear of being ridiculed -- or spanked for blasphemy. But their accounts of an exiled God who cannot or will not respond to human pleas as his angels wage war with Hell is, to shelter children, a plausible explanation for having no safe home, and one that engages them in an epic clash."
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1997-06-05/news/myths-over-miami/
People wonder why I believe seriously in all these myths and legends of gods and angels, spirits and magic... this is partly why.
You make your myths, you share your faith, you spread a sense of hope, power, familiarity, love, safety, understanding. God -- all gods -- in all places, the idea a strong comfort to those who feel lost and alone.
I hate it when people argue over faith. It doesn't matter. You have your gods and faith, I have mine. In the end, it can't be forced or preached or threatened. It's all faith. It's in the heart and the soul and the mind. People tell me that if I don't share their faith, I will suffer for eternity. I wonder if they use threats to cover their own fear, their own loneliness, their own worry. They project their fears and hopes onto others so they feel better about how they are living and how they will die. They think: If everyone believes what I believe, the world will be better. Humanity will be better. I see it now. I have the answer. I know the truth.
The thing is, there are billions of truths out there, small gods and minor angels and silent spirits and deeper magic. Everyone sees what they need to see in order to make the world better for themselves.
My hope and wish for this holiday season is that people start realizing that having faith means being together and respecting each other, not blindly trusting that they'll get their own way in the end, not hoping non-believers might be punished.
Even atheists have a kind of faith. Faith means so many things.
Beyond that... I hope everyone is having a lovely, joyous holiday. I hope you are with the ones you love and you are safe and happy.
"Belief in the story makes it a fact, regardless of the amount of truth involved." -Robert Wuhl
"Folktales are usually an inheritance from family or homeland. But what if you are a child enduring a continual, grueling, dangerous journey? No adult can steel such a child against the outcast's fate: the endless slurs and snubs, the threats, the fear. What these determined children do is snatch dark and bright fragments of Halloween fables, TV news, and candy-colored Bible-story leaflets from street-corner preachers, and like birds building a nest from scraps, weave their own myths. The "secret stories" are carefully guarded knowledge, never shared with older siblings or parents for fear of being ridiculed -- or spanked for blasphemy. But their accounts of an exiled God who cannot or will not respond to human pleas as his angels wage war with Hell is, to shelter children, a plausible explanation for having no safe home, and one that engages them in an epic clash."
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1997-06-05/news/myths-over-miami/
People wonder why I believe seriously in all these myths and legends of gods and angels, spirits and magic... this is partly why.
You make your myths, you share your faith, you spread a sense of hope, power, familiarity, love, safety, understanding. God -- all gods -- in all places, the idea a strong comfort to those who feel lost and alone.
I hate it when people argue over faith. It doesn't matter. You have your gods and faith, I have mine. In the end, it can't be forced or preached or threatened. It's all faith. It's in the heart and the soul and the mind. People tell me that if I don't share their faith, I will suffer for eternity. I wonder if they use threats to cover their own fear, their own loneliness, their own worry. They project their fears and hopes onto others so they feel better about how they are living and how they will die. They think: If everyone believes what I believe, the world will be better. Humanity will be better. I see it now. I have the answer. I know the truth.
The thing is, there are billions of truths out there, small gods and minor angels and silent spirits and deeper magic. Everyone sees what they need to see in order to make the world better for themselves.
My hope and wish for this holiday season is that people start realizing that having faith means being together and respecting each other, not blindly trusting that they'll get their own way in the end, not hoping non-believers might be punished.
Even atheists have a kind of faith. Faith means so many things.
Beyond that... I hope everyone is having a lovely, joyous holiday. I hope you are with the ones you love and you are safe and happy.
