You are never disjointed, although since I am the Queen of disjointment and non sequitur, maybe I just understand you better.
The Beachcomber's popularity reminded me of The Waltons here in the US that ran for 10 or more years about a closeknit family in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Interesting, well- developed characters facing real crises and dealing with real emotions. A close-knit community.
the importance of our stories has been lost.
This is very thought-provoking, and I think it goes even deeper than the ethical teaching stories you talked about. When I read Women Who Run With Wolves a few years ago, I had a feeling of kinship with her stories. I recognized them; they "resonated" even though they were based on a culture not my own. Metaphors and myths add meaning and create a commonality for us. Without this, we are so very alone. From what CW and Ammo tell me, there are a lot of young people who are very disconnected. They are far from their original communities, if they ever belonged to one. Their parents are often divorced. The religion of their parents often doesn't speak to them in a logical or even spiritual way. The world for them has the same unstable, temporary feel that ours had in the 60s. They use drugs and alcohol, they strive for material things, they look around for larger things to believe in- like CW and his AI interests. Wasn't it Campbell who said Christianity was dated and needed replacing? That the myth wasn't connecting as well?
Anyway, without the core, without the stories, all we can do is try to imitate old values in strange new ways--especially if the family itself is failing to provide a cohesive, ethical structure.
We have the religious far RW shoving their answers down our throats, we have gangs who attempt, like Peter Pan's lost boys, to create families, we build Town Squares to LOOK like small towns, our entertainment is a mishmash with no real heart. We have weird shows that remake people and houses that make us feel "good" but make no real demand on us or on character.
I don't know which came first-- did we lose the stories, or did the stories fail to sustain us in such a rapidly changing and global world?
Well, there, I have managed to be far more disjointed than you.
Am still thinking what stories made me what I am. Love the dog story. I was raised on persecuted saints. Scary stuff.
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