Stories have been around for an eternity. I could guess they were welcome relief from the misery of ancient life. It was good to know good things happen to people through these stories. Stories told around the campfire became a regular part of life. They were important when there was less known about their real world and its boundaries. The story becomes strongly held belief. These stories become mythology. With time, mythologies become believed as actual records of history.
These stories of the past reign supreme as the facts. New revelations of the world would make the mythologies, those “facts” turn into just ancestors. A difficult shift, for sure.
It is simpler to look at someone else’s mythologies and see the peculiarities that are beliefs taken on faith, without evidence of any sort. Easier than looking at our own.
I grew up in the midwest. Living in that part of the U.S. I held lots of generalized beliefs about “us” as Midwesterners and those from elsewhere. I went to California for my education beyond high school. Wow, I got a much bigger education in that move. I had weakened the cement of my Midwestern mythologies. When I returned to visit relatives there, they would reassert their beliefs to me, since I had become “infected” by the other experiences in the places I had been. I found this curious, and now I find the mythologies to be the core of the story.
What is the way forward, the next link? DNA has broadened beliefs about our mythologies. We all need a perspective from which to govern our own lives, a guide. As we grow through adulthood, this sense of belonging and security has to widen to mature.
It has been said that if you aren’t moving forward, you are standing still. Since everything else is moving, are we moving toward the future where we must live? Being real is quite a quest, to remove the plastic wrap and reveal the feel of real air. Safely wrapped, one can only imagine, and probably fear real air. This leads to all sorts of reactions based on beliefs, based on imagination.
Fresh air is an experience that can lead to a real, fulfilling life. There is no substitute for the real thing, full of wondrous sensations. Live well and prosper.