How do you appreciate the myth

there are so many aspects to enjoy: the music, the art, the contemplative experience. much of who we are has nothing to do with words or rational thought. we identify with these myths at a primal, emotional level…let that open your heart to a higher consciousness.

I wrote some about my feelings in regard to the historical fiction account af the Martin and Willie handcart companies in the movie “17 Miracles.”

my overall point is that I can enjoy this film as a story without it necessarily reflecting accurately historical events or the economy of heavenly miracles. I can enjoy the Davinci Code, or the Titanic, or Codetalkers etc. and not expect it to be a history lesson.

Some stories take more liberties than others. What might the way we tell the handcart pioneer story say about us? This is why I find the loosely historical stories that are told in mormondom so fascinating. There are two realities: 1) where we have been and 2) what we think it means. I believe that the divergence between these two are found in the stories that we share as a community. In a way it becomes our communal soul. They bind us together in a shared heritage…like the way Jewish families tell the stories and miracles of the OT.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/the-songs-they-could-not-sing?lang=eng

Not long ago there was a story from the Titanic that Elder Cook shared in GC. An LDS woman is a midwife/nurse and she goes down with the ship. The story that is passed down with her family is that most women and children were saved in lifeboats but that this LDS woman instead selflessly choose to tend to those that were wounded in the collision and missed her spot.

From my understanding there are two problems with this story: 1) Most women and children did not get off the Titanic and 2) there were no reports of individuals injured in the collision (though many were probably injured in the actual sinking). Where did this story come from? If she died and she was alone on the ship, how could her relatives in Utah hope to know what actually happened?

Can I understand the family fleshing out the details in a way that honors her memory? Yes. Do I value the Elder Cooks message even despite some erroneous details? Yes.

I really enjoyed Elder Cook’s juxtaposition of the missionaries that missed the trip and the woman who chose the Titanic because the missionaries had booked the same voyage. Nice recognition that righteousness is not a protection against adversity, kind of in the style of Pres. Kimball’s “tragedy or destiny”. The addition that she may have been so dedicated to her saintly medical service to get off the ship herslef, even furthers this message. Is it possible that the good fortune of the missionaries was just a coincidence? Yes, but it is still good and proper to give thanks…

So in summary I appreciate these mythologies for 2 main reasons:

1) What they tell us about life and the human condition (the message can be true even if the story is not.)

2) What shared mythologies tell us about our communal identity and shared heritage. Even if the message doesn’t really appeal to me, [at least not for the same reasons as everybody else] I still find value in being connected to others. Some Mormon when asked whether they would be more comfortable in a room full of black persons of the same gender or a room full of the opposite gender responded that they would feel most comfortable in a room full of Mormons despite the gender, race, or socio-economic status. Isn’t there some value in being a member of a tribe?

One cool thing for me is that these myths are not set in stone. Myths are being tweaked, modified, and even born – today. Even those stories that are considered sacred are getting new readings and new interpretations. That’s the great thing about communal myths – we get to leave our mark on them. What stories might you wish to pass on to the next generation?

I was just thinking about this. Sometimes we mean different things by “myth.” For example:

– a story that some people take as literal that is symbolic. (e.g. Adam & Eve)

– a historical person or event that is given “mythical” status or importance, often twisting the facts to fit a narrative that either bolsters the community or instructs us in some way (e.g. the milk strippings story, the story of the printing press).

– an idealistic vision about the importance of a community (e.g. American exceptionalism, the “one true” church)

I think there are different approaches depending on the type of myth we are dealing with.

does our integrity and authenticity suffer when we ignore falsehood taught as truth, thus tacitly accept it?

I don’t think so, especially not in a lay clergy church. I don’t see these folks as having more authority than I do. Plus, they don’t speak for me. I don’t say anything I don’t believe, and to me that’s what authenticity requires.

How do you make myth important in your life. How is it some can relish in the myth and legend of any particular organization in this case the church, and find such value in that legend even if they do not believe it to be true…So here I sit wondering how and why individuals even on this forum find myth and nuance so appealing. What am I missing? My mind is so linear. I like to think in one direction and not get bogged down…So is the myth in Mormonism appealing to you? Do you find value in studying things your may find suspect?

I’m not sure how much appreciation or respect different myths really deserve or not but I can understand why some of them would continue to be so popular as long as they often are. Basically people love storytelling and easily get caught up in the hype in many cases. Personally I think myths could actually have more to do with the way the world really operates at this point than legitimate facts. Of course, by world I mean the world of human affairs with all the politics, psychology, and salesmanship often involved in real life decision making. Once you are dealing with human emotions and guesswork it is not nearly as simple as Physics or Chemistry 101 for everyone to come up with the same answers anymore.

Even the most cold and calculating individuals can easily be tricked by all-too-human feelings like overconfidence and impatience into thinking they already have it all figured out in cases where they are actually way off or barely scratching the surface. When it comes to widespread acceptance of different ideas it seems like what really matters more than undeniable truth is simply whether it sounds good in theory. If you already believe something then anything new that contradicts what you are already familiar with and expect to find will not necessarily sound right at first and there is a strong tendency to deny it no matter how true it really is. If people you trust believe something and/or most people around you believe it then that usually makes it much easier to just accept what you hear at face value as well.

That’s why trying to expose myths as false can be a painful and inconvenient struggle for everyone involved and I’m not sure if it is even worth the effort in most cases. For example, consider the nearly infallible prophet idea; as far as I’m concerned this is a myth that is fairly easy to discredit and that also does more harm than good by itself so I would just as soon see it go away. However, to hardcore TBMs that already assume that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly benevolent (the way they expect) it only makes sense that such a god could easily give us specific directions instead of leaving us in the dark to fend for ourselves most of the time. On top of that, TBMs often treat everything the Church teaches as a package deal so that a threat to the idea of trustworthy prophets is basically seen as a serious threat to their entire belief system and identity as if life will suddenly lose much of its meaning and purpose if it turns out that prophets aren’t everything the Church claims.

Cadence, I think the thing is that stories are great, but if you believe them to be completely fictitious, then there is a barrier. For example, I might really like Star Trek, and as a completely random episode, let’s talk the one with the alternate universe and the “other” Mr. Spock… now, that’s a pretty good story, but I can’t find spirituality in it, or go to a church over it, or accept “callings” because of it, since I know it to be completely made-up. Now when you start talking the “myth” from a religious side, you start asking yourself how you can find anything important, when it is something you do not accept on its face… BofM, for example.

For me, bearing in mind I am a complete non-believer, there are aspects that I do find compelling. Let me give the biggest one as an example.

In the NT, we are told that the Son of God came to earth, walked among us, healed the sick, taught a better way, and invited many to join him in the Kingdom of God, here on the earth. Many did follow him, and found great awakening/awareness/joy/solace because of it. Others rejected him and worked to destroy him and his teachings. Ultimately, they were successful in destroying him, but in doing so, they cemented, rather than halted his teachings. In fact, in his very rejection/destruction, Jesus’ meaning became something much greater, and the suffering and death of this man had a mystical way of representing and overcoming all of our own failures. That if we continue in the belief of him, his destruction paves the way for the construction of our souls… and that if we join him by destroying the natural man within us, that we can be raised up into a New Life, that has meaning, value, purpose… wherein we are no longer the slaves of our base desires, but are made capable to reach for something much, much higher.

Now, I don’t actually believe the history. Yet, there is something in the myth that I find, not only interesting, not only compelling, but actually empowering. I can reach beyond myself toward a better way of being/living/loving. In doing so, I can leave the less lofty aspects of myself behind, and take on a new self, if I simply follow the ideals set forth by this man, and made available to me because of his death. In other words, it’s not the facts of Jesus that are interesting, but the myth and message of Jesus… and in that way, it doesn’t fundamentally matter what the facts are.

In a related way, many here find the BofM to have the same kind of spiritual-lifing, even though they don’t believe it to be a historical account and have severe doubts about how we got it.

I think, then, that the way people make myth work for them is to pick what inspires them and let it stand on its own as inspirational, regardless of the history of it.

I don’t know why you have the avatar you do, Cadence, but if it’s because you enjoy Star Trek, you may have more of an appreciation for mythology than you know. http://ksarchive.com/viewstory.php?sid=4899” class=”bbcode_url”>http://ksarchive.com/viewstory.php?sid=4899

As for me, the myth in Mormonism is tremendously appealing. You have to admit, no matter what you believe about the veracity of the church and it’s teachings, it’s one great story! 😆

My avatar is Spock because he deals in logic and reason. Of course I picked the evil Spock just for fun.