Mythic Detective

I see UPS trucks everywhere now, but this was not always the case.  Since the day I made a conscious effort to keep my eyes open for them I cannot go a day without a sighting.  Each time I am reminded that if we look for something, we will see it everywhere.  This is true of religion as well.  From the documented accounts of seeing an image of the Virgin Mary in a window, to the word Allah in a cloud, to the Hindu monkey deity in a tree, what we seek becomes visible.

If we keep our eyes open, specific objects, ideas, behaviors, and patterns emerge.  I can’t imagine how rich and deep Dr. Sexson’s view of the world must be.  The connections he can make between seemingly unrelated things is remarkable.  But this just goes to show, mythology is everywhere.  Once we are tapped into mythology, the world becomes a little clearer and connections and relationships begin to emerge everywhere we look. 

I am not capable of making all these connections yet, but I am getting better at seeing the broader picture.  I had an epiphany of sorts this past Easter.  I decided I would try an experiment after learning how common the dying/resurrection theme is in agriculture mythology, such as the stories of Adonis, Attis, and Osiris.  Every time the pastor said “Jesus” or “Lord” or “Savior” at the Sunday service, I swapped that word with “sun”.  And it was as if a veil was lifted.  Easter is after the Spring Equinox when the length of the day is longer than the length of the night.  Light has defeated Darkness.  New life is given.  We celebrate the “Son” rising during a sunrise service

on Sunday.

I realize now that we are not as different as we think, as we are led to believe.  We all have the same questions; we all have the same fears and desires.  We share the same emotions, the same passions.  We all have conflicts and burdens, insecurities and strengths.  And underneath the superficial layer of names and places, (you know, the boring stuff), our stories are the same too.  Our heroes, be they from the modern Western world or from the ancient times of Egypt, possess the same qualities.  They go through times of great hardship but emerge, against all odds, on the other side stronger, better, and with a story and message to tell. 

The meaning I give to the word “myth” has changed as well.  I used to associate it with fairytales, of ridiculous stories that primitive people somehow believed.  But now I realize that they believed in their gods as much as we believe in ours, if not more so!  Zeus was as real to them as Jesus is to us.  Allah is just as real to Muslims as Osiris was to the Egyptians.  A couple thousand years from now, people may be looking back at Jesus walking on water with the same incredulity that we view Apollo leading the sun across the sky.  As Ovid writes, “When God, whichever God he was, created the universe we know”.  Because whichever God we believe in, we come from the same on.

I’ve learned not to take too seriously the screams of damnation from those Christians who tell me I’m going to hell for the way I’m living my life.  If Heaven is full of those wackjobs, I don’t want to spend an eternity there anyways. 

On May 5th of this year, I will walk across the stage at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse to receive my college diploma.  I have no idea what I want to do with my life.  But I am

comfortable with this because I want to explore the world for “we shall not cease from exploration”.  If we always knew what was going to happen, life would be pretty boring.  I don’t need to know all the answers.  Because it is only at the end when we finally truly get it (in more ways than one)

About a week ago, my roommates and I were playing cards down in our basement.  The game came to a halt when a small spider descended upon our table from the light fixture overhead.  One roommate has a fear of spiders and bolted out of his chair.  The other reached for a nearby newspaper to squish the spider.  I acted quickly, and grabbed the paper first.  But instead of killing the spider, I gently collected it and brought it outside.  I then said, “Take care, Arachne”.

My roommates looked at me incredulously.  “What the hell are you doing?  It’s just a spider, why didn’t you kill it?”

And all I said in return was, “You need to read Ovid.”

I would like to thank Dr. Sexson and Jennifer for opening up this new world to us, one which was here all along, but we did not know how to see it.