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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Krowbar who wrote (27620)	1/4/1999 3:43:00 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

You know I am a rationalist Del, but I am going to try to switch gears a bit. I think a myth can be "real" in the sense of being meaningful without being believed as being absolutely real. Put another way, some stories can have deep, resonant symbolic meaning to us, move us, touch us- and yet we do not have to believe in them. I love the story of Buddha. I do not believe it is all true- but it doesn't need to be, to be a wonderful myth. I like the story of Jesus. I like the story of David. I enjoy the Song of Solomon. I think Genesis is powerful reading. I also happen to love the myth of the God Balder- who is a Christ-like figure in Norse mythology. If I remember correctly Balder was the God of light, he was of all the Gods the most well loved. A supremely good being. Balder's mother knew that Balder was in danger (I can't remember how) and she went to every living thing and made every thing promise it would not hurt Balder. Because Balder was immune to danger the Gods played games trying to hurt Balder- because no arrow or spear could strike him- everything had promised not to hurt him. But his mother had forgotten to get the lowly mistletoe to promise. It had seemed so harmless she forgot it. So Loki fashioned an arrow point from the mistletoe and had the blind God (can't remember his name but I think he was Balder's brother) shoot Balder- and Balder was killed. But a part of the Norse myth is that at the end of the world of Gods and Giants (Ragnarok) Balder will be reborn to lead a new race of men. Sound familiar? Now do I believe a race of giants and Gods existed? No- no more than I believe in a talking jawbone of an ass. But I find the myths moving. They are real in the sense that they make me feel certain emotions.

To: Krowbar who wrote (27620)	1/16/1999 4:12:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

<I am not against a new belief system, I guess that I would prefer to see it based on fact.> Well, I am not sure that I am really discussing belief systems in the sense that they are true or false. I am echoing Joseph Campbell and X in the sense that I am arguing that our search for meaning is a vital part of the imagination, and gives us depth and substance as intelligent beings. Everyone needs meaning, everyone needs roots. The traditions that are steeped in mythology give us richness and color; continuity is stabilizing and healthy. I am not sure this is a good example of what I am really talking about, but since it came to mind I will mention it. I used to go to the graveyard to visit my dead grandmother, to talk to her. I clearly knew that she was not really there--that her decomposing body had nothing left of her in it. I also doubted seriously that her spirit was intact anywhere that she was aware of me, or could hear me (although I am less sure of this). I very definitely knew that the silk hydrangeas with which I decorated her grave had absolutely no meaning for her, even though they were her favorite flower, and mine. What was important about my visits to her grave was that I found deep meaning in that ritual. When I was there I felt very close to her. Everything about going there and thinking about her, and my childhood with her, and mourning her and talking to her about things that were going on in my life at that moment, were enormously clarifying for me. Now a scientist would probably find all of that silly--me talking to myself in front of some old bones--but I think it is quite valid to say that even though her participation was almost certainly in my imagination, I found everything about those visits very real and beneficial, even though I was lost in myth when you think about it rationally.