I’m sitting here, feeling my hands on the keyboard, noticing my breath is a little short and jumpy. Anxious. Worried.
A friend calls on the phone. I take a deep breath and we talk, which lifts me out of the anxiety. A little mindfulness and the voice of friendship can do that. We all need that voice.
So much is changing. So much is threatened. And it’s difficult to see how we can influence a change for the better. But just as the voice of a friend helped lift me out of the grip of anxiety, joining with others, and feeling the yearning and the need to act, together, does the same. There might be fear there, that is true. But also light, hope. A sense of the future emerges, that there can be a future. That there can be joy and love in the future.
This is one way we dissolve anxiety. We see that it’s there, name it, and then do something to alleviate it. Worrying can deprive us of ourselves. Learning, planning, acting can give us the strength we need, so we feel we have strength and power. It is a kindness that we give ourselves, and kindness is so needed to change the world. Kindness to ourselves and others helps us part that curtain so we can see ourselves more clearly, with more perspective.
And getting a larger perspective is a second thing we can do. We can do that partly by taking walks in nature, studying mind-body disciplines like martial arts, yoga, and meditation, reading history, politics, science, literature, humor, etc.
I remember reading Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with A Thousand Faces. This is a powerful book to read and share with students and friends. It can open doors to widely divergent works of literature and religion that otherwise might be closed, such as the story of the Buddha to Bilbo Baggins. From Edmond Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo to Gilgamesh, the hero of the first story ever written. From Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz to Star Wars and Close Encounters.
Campbell’s book explicates the hero cycle, a pattern that heroic characters have possibly followed in their path to enlightenment, redemption, or saving lives. One part of that path is The Call to Adventure. The movie Star Wars begins with Luke Skywalker living with his aunt and uncle. He is enveloped in his normal world, knowing nothing of who he is and feeling distant from the battle taking place in the universe around him. He is asked by Obi Wan Kenobi to join in the quest to rescue Princess Leia. He refuses. At first.
Then he goes home to find it, and his aunt and uncle, burned. The struggle has become personal, and he is ready to heed the call. George Lucas used the hero cycle quite very deliberately in creating the movie.
When I first read Campbell’s book, I was shaken by his explanations of what happens when the call is refused, as in Luke’s case. Or the mythical Fisher King, whose refusal of the call turned his kingdom into a wasteland. Campbell quoted the Bible to dramatic and disturbing effect: “Because I have called, and ye refused… I will also laugh at your calamity… when your fear cometh as desolation and anguish cometh upon you.”
The word myth can mean many things. It can mean, “This is only a story; it’s fiction, untrue.” It can refer to a traditional or sacred story or events put into story form. Campbell said they are stories that we live. Myths can be viewed as the emotional dramas and deep patterns of our lives seen in the broader context of a universal story so all of us can engage with them and better understand ourselves. These patterns or archetypes are what the psychology of Carl Jung and others reveal for us.
If this situation today was a mythical adventure, we’d be the nascent heroic figure standing on a road facing a three-headed dragon: the dragon of sickness, or the pandemic. The dragon of world destruction or global warming. And the dragon of social destruction from anti-democratic, white-nationalist politics fueled by human selfishness and blindness.
So many of us are doing all we can⎼ or doing what we can to stay sane and safe as our world, both human and natural, changes and seems to slip away from us. So much is changing. So much is threatened. Can we view our situation today as a call to action?
It is sometimes necessary to hide from frightening events or embrace answers that answer nothing except a wish to be comforted. And of course, we need to feel comfort, both in our material lives and in our skin. But maybe we can use myths to provide a wider lens that helps us better face our fears and our lives, to be kinder and stronger.
Maybe myths can help us remember that people throughout history have faced awful, horrible conditions and have overcome them. We can come to realize each of us has a role in protecting human life and society. John Tarrant, in his book The Light Inside The Dark: Zen, Soul, and the Spiritual Life says that one of the first steps an oppressor might take is to steal away the images and stories that strengthen us and replace them with false idols or nightmares that frighten and imprison us. We can strive to make conscious the images that guide us and let go of those that hurt and weaken us.
And can anyone doubt that this very moment can feel mythical? Back in 2020 philosopher Noam Chomsky, someone many of us would consider one of the most reasonable and clear headed people alive today, said we are in the most dangerous moment in human history. He was talking about facing the possible end of organized human life, while facing, in DJT, the worst criminal; and in DJT’s GOP, one of the most dangerous organizations we have ever seen in our nation. This is where myth and reality overlap.
But mythical thinking can also increase the danger if we mistake the lens for the reality and lose the sense not only of our own humanity, but that of others, even those we think of as enemies. The evil we see is still very human. And these enemies must be viewed and dealt with as human⎼ inhumane, yes, but not inhuman or superhuman.
We are facing a challenge like no other we humans have ever faced. So much is changing, so much is threatened. To meet that challenge, mythology might help us acknowledge just how deep is the threat. But the call is not to take on the burden alone; not to enter the dark forest or fight stormtroopers by ourselves. But, by ourselves, to call others.
And unlike the myth, we don’t meet the call only once, nor do we act only to win. We act to do what’s needed and right. The challenge is to find the deepest levels in ourselves where we most authentically meet not just friends and family, but all others and the world itself.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Shutterstock
