I fell into a pit of regretable pontification not too long ago with DW (dear wife) over something that has troubled me for some time as a father, husband, brother, son and perhaps more than anything....grandfather. You see, as a grandfather, I somehow feel like I should have figured it all out by now. Mysteriously, I feel the weight of my grandfatherly beard (read: symbol of wisdom) is metaphorically as light as it is literally.
As a modern American man-child I, like so many others, spent hours in the backseat of my father's family truckster blissfully reading. Trips to Utah back then took 2 days....no Vrigin River Gorge Highway...lots of winding roads as we climbed into Utah or to some other great American west attraction. That's right, we were trying to get the hell AWAY from Disney's Land. Truth be told, however, I might as well have been languishing in the "Magical Kingdom" for all the distance I was putting between myself and fantasy. You see, at every gas or fan belt repair stop there was sure to be one of those revolving chrome (everything was chrome back then...not just internet browsers) racks with inch thick packs of comic books wrapped in cellophane. Superman, Batman and Archie were my favorites in that order. Television was pretty new. My generation gained an appreciation for jazz, the blues and sarcasm from the likes of Soupy Sales, but our mythology and hence much of our American world view, at least mine, came from comic books.
When I got older I started to see that almost everything I read or watched was shot through with the same Bible (and by default Book of Mormon) based mythology. I used to think it was fun and that I was kind of clever to see it there, but now it seems so pervasive and obvious, it just sort of pisses me off. It's not because I necessarily have anything against the Bible (or other holy books) even though I feel sometimes that it is responsible for the incipient evil that it presumes only to report. It is more like a feeling of being trapped by it. Joseph Campbell suggested that the mythology could be either distributive of a common source (since the same motifs are found in disparate parts of the world in different cultures) or evolutionarily wired into the human psyche. Either way it seems inescapable....as though a god set it in motion and walked away or the need to survive by killing each other over scarce resources through eons of time has led to war even when our collective intelligence has evolved to a level where alternatives seem possible.
A few quotes from Joseph Campbell:
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.
It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.
Love is a friendship set to music
The speech that President Obama gave when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is a good example of what I am trying to get at. The President defended America's role in protecting the world and it's own interests from evil to people who insist that there is a better way than the one he has chosen to perpetuate. They thought that he understood that (that's why they gave him the award) and most assuredly, he does. I imagine that they were mightily disappointed to hear him pander to the likes of Dick Cheney and his ilk who see America as that which must only be spoken of as the world's holy temple from which all truth emanates. They hold the very world view that has the potential to destroy what has made this place so great for people who have come to it from every other place. It is no longer possible, politically, for an American leader to present America as anything but a perfect-and-to-be-respected-always authority. Patriotism has become religion. It was always so for some but now the "religion" has become pervasive. As Joseph Campbell might ask "are we stuck in our own metaphores".
The two young Jewish men who created Superman used their Biblical Superman....Moses as an archetype. Sent from his people in a basket on a river (in a pod through space) to be discovered in the reeds (cornfield) by his new parents. Growing up and hiding his true identity and on and on. It always comes back to this. You cannot speak or behave outside of this cage of mythology without sounding very odd or disconnected. In our religion, there is a well established mechanism for dealing with those who stray from the script. They are "offended" or they "want to sin". I would like to go to church starting with this current cycle of the Old Testament, however, it does seem pointless to cycle through the "standard works" ....to suggest that we believe them to be separate texts (which of course they are). Unfortunately this time around the Old Testament will be used as the other three texts are used....to establish our metaphors as truth.
Joseph Campbell asks:
Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes?
This is what. I want to find a way to keep from being flattened. A single woman once told me that 19 year old LDS missionaries are not troubled by thoughts and feelings for the opposite sex since they are "on their mission" My response to her (though I am not sure why I bothered) was that instead of embracing the miracle that 19 year old men eschew the most powerful force in their physical selves in order to obey and to do what they think that God expects of them (right or wrong), she was denying their humanity and was metaphorically the same as those who slam the door in their faces.
So, I admit I am worried as to what kind of world will prevail for my grandchildren. I worry about how their little brains will be wired by what they read and hear both sacred and secular. Their parents have some responsibility, but it is a monumental task for us who are learning as we go. The typical answer it to give it up to those that speak for God. But don't try to tell me they were reading the sacred texts in the back seat of their father's car.
As for me, I am inclined to listen to those who have been down into the abyss.
5 comments:
To think that I never knew you preferred Superman to Batman.
I've made my living thus far thinking about stories — how they're composed and deployed and received — and so a lot of what you've written here plucks chords strung deeply in my own concerns. It's no accident, I suppose, that I'm drawn to these sorts of questions.
The US, at least as much as any other modern society, may be trapped in its own metaphors — probably because it began as a metaphor, an idea, a concept. The New World was created (as such!) by and through storytelling as much as industry, exploration, innovation, etc.
Joseph Smith definitely understood (whether explicitly or not, I don't know) the power of mythmaking. It's all over his theology, which recasts older stories from a variety of sources into something clearly aware of its place in history. Our current leaders seem to be stuck in trying to reiterate (rather than rejuvenate by recasting) his message. Until a clear voice — which will, by definition, be prophetic in a way that today's "prophets" aren't — redacts Joseph's message for our day, Mormonism will continue to stagnate.
Much more to say on the topics you've raised, but I'll let someone else chime in.
Thanks for this, Dad.
I'm not sure I really grasp the full extent of what you are saying here. But I feel like religion, myth, etc all share a common theme of trying to get us to reflect.
Reflect about what?
For me personally, I think I want to understand the connection that exist among all people. Between you and me, and him, and that other guy in China. Our connection with each other and with the earth, and the universe. (Other than 42.)
But, it sounds like you might be arguing that it is just my brain synthesizing all the stories/stimulus I've consumed (consciously or not) over my 31 years and spitting them out into a world view that seems appealing and acceptable to me.
That sounds kinda awful, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. What if there is some sort of cosmic Dao. Some way that all things are suppose to be, and we can collectively pick up on it. What if humanity and nature is always adjusting and readjusting to try and find the frequency and tune in. That is a prettier way of thinking about it, even if it is pure speculation.
Is that what salvation is, finally tuning in all together?
I'll stop the embarrassing rambling now.
Brian...thanks for jumping in. No, I don't think any of this is related to "salvation". My point is that we are already tuned in together in great numbers. That is what Joseph Campbell's quote means to me....to being stuck.
If you take the most recent war, for example. Members of the "Christian" community (their "prophet" being "I take my direction from another father" George W Bush) were some of the biggest proponents of invading Iraq. It was a blood lust like I have never seen or even read about in modern times. That response to religious fanatics (911 terrorists) in my own religious community has had me looking hard for another frequency. I could go on at length with militaristic appeals to LDS youth from the BOM, but I don't think I need to do that. And Justin was spot on with Joseph Smith and his own millennial militarism....good grief...I am sounding like Neal Maxwell....tacky.
a poem by Jack Gilbert came to mind when i read this post. i went straight to my bookshelf to read it again.
i can't retype it here without losing the line breaks, so you'll have to visit "state of friss."
see ya (wouldn't wanna be ya)
:-)
Hey now. Alliteration alone does not a Neal Maxwell make. :-)
And I forgot to mention in my first post that whoever thinks missionaries don't think about sex is either deluding themselves or being lied to by a whole lot of missionaries. So many dress socks ruined... ;-)
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