What I’m Up To—from Carol to You

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‍This past year has been a complex one for most of us, largely because so much is up in the air in our culture and government, as well as the economy, jobs, on our streets, fears about what is being lost and what the future will bring. Just reading the news can be unnerving, as is not feeling easy about our own futures. For this reason, I am focusing on signs of hope.

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Right now, I’m hard at work on a book about archetypal and cultural fusion and the power of story. For much of patriarchal history, human roles were defined by specific archetypes. To the degree that more of us choose to, and can, seek out those roles that authentically fit for us, the more we live in archetypal fields that affect one another. This is not a small change in the U.S., but it needs to expand our capacities to meet the challenges of our future.

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Many have understood that it was the power of storytelling which helped homo sapiens survive when other humanoid species did not. But how can we survive—even given climate change, the proliferations of weapons of mass destruction, and continuing wars, just to name a few dangers—unless more of us evolve to have greater narrative intelligence and flexibility than most of our ancestors did? I’m exploring how seemingly opposing archetypal stories help us in this task when they become complements in our psyches and in our culture.

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The final section of the book focuses on positive fusion, as archetypes come together—just like ingredients from many lands in mouth-watering food, or how Latin and Jewish food became standard American fare; like how new species enrich local environmental systematicity in both plants and animal interactions, which help balance our earth’s future; like how Elvis integrated African-American music tradition into white culture, perhaps enriching both; and like how many musicians around the world create new sounds through creative borrowing. So, too, the fusion of human consciousness from around the world can save you, me, and our culture.

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As I’m writing this, there is a huge buzz around Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. Yes, it offended some who thought it was un-American to feature him when he sang in Spanish. Others loved having such a world-renowned musician in that role. To me, it is a great way to share with you what is on my mind for the third section of my book-in-progress about personal and cultural fusion. I believe our culture will make it through the rather fearsome and unknown future, because culture is our soul, while politics and systems are just our joint body. Soul expressed in story, art, music, dance, and so much else can transform it.

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Bad Bunny’s music is loved and celebrated all over the world, and he achieves this by balancing being true to his roots while also fusing elements from other musical traditions and innovations to them. The more we fuse our own best selves into the maze, and the more we welcome the best of any and all of us, the better our chances for not just acing but enjoying the journey ahead. As Bad Bunny charged us after stressing his humble origins: “I never ever stopped believing in myself and you should also believe in yourself. You're worth more than you think.”

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‍In the Blogosphere‍

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‍My Blogs:

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‍During this past difficult and turbulent year, I have struggled with how to be both relevant and useful in ways different from what I’m reading elsewhere. Thus, my most recent blog focuses on narcissism. Indeed, much has been said about narcissists in high and ordinary places and their impact. Just the other week, the New York Times ran a guest opinion essay about how narcissists come across as highly competent because they so elevate their notions of their own abilities. They frequently get hired for this reason but are either less successful, or even disasters, when in their jobs. The essay also said something newer: Those most likely to support narcissists are those who are insecure themselves or, as an analyst explained to me, deficient in self-esteem.

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Narcissism generally is written about as a psychological disorder that requires professional help to address. I focus on two Greek versions of the sad tale of Narcissus and Echo that are primary Greek myths because these are stories. If we can see ourselves in that myth—say, how we look down on others—we can examine why that might be and whether that is a plotline we want to live. When we are stuck having to deal with someone who lives any version of that story, we can refuse to live the response they want. In one version of the myth, Echo just repeats what Narcissus says, thus reinforcing his dysfunctionality. If we are dealing with people who are acting in narcissistic ways, it is possible to avoid buttressing their tendencies by not playing the roles that narcissists reinforce and/or punish.

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In addition, narcissism in the U.S. is contagious, based on the belief, which many have bought into, in American exceptionalism—i.e., the idea that we are superior to other nations and do not have to abide by normal rules—and that capitalism is a meritocracy, which confuses wealth with merit.

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I found this subject to be so rich that it ended up as three parts of one long blog. The title of the series is Narcissus and Echo: the U.S., Our Politics, and You and Me.

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‍Part One: The Echo Trap focuses on living our own stories of Narcissus or of Echo to explore how these are acted out today.

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Then Part Two: Disney, Jesus, and Shakespeare suggests some answers.

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The Epilogue: Shakespeare’s The Tempest moves even deeper to identify more profound choices we can make for the good of one another and our times.

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My other recent blog, The Hidden Message of Deadpool & Wolverine for This Political Season, was written after seeing the movie of the same name. The main comic characters carry out the expected behaviors of the Warrior hero story with very light and fun music playing in the background, creating an experience for the viewer of Jester overlaying the Warrior narrative. The characters in the movie even ridicule how they are still caught in this expected war trap, declaring how trying to kill one another is what the audience desires from them.

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‍Guest Blogs:‍

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‍Dori Koehler’s Disneyland Series:

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‍Blog One: The Creator: We are living in a time when we need the ability to recreate with magic, beauty, and community. This blog focuses on the creative magic of not only The Disneyland Resort, but the communities that link events from multiple parks along with the creative genius of fans. It focuses specifically on the content creators who engage their community through live streaming, creating new ways of engaging with other fans and, in some cases, generating new business ventures for them. “Creator energy is present in the way fans engage with The Walt Disney Company through incalculable examples of visual art, social groupings, video games, fiction, and nonfiction. But one group of artists has recently begun to utilize transmedia creativity to craft something new. These social media content creators, some of whom are live streamers, are Disney fans who offer followers a live interactive experience of the parks.

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”Blog Two: The Caregiver: What happens when a corporation’s policies stand in contradiction to the values it claims to believe? Disney amusement parks and movies express much of what used to be pretty much consensual American values—of course, cleaning them up, and of course shifting as times change. Lately, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, has been under attack from our polarized political climate; the corporation has, too, being sued for something said on television that a major leader found offensive. Dori’s guest blogs have focused on the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and how it inspires devoted communities of Disney park lovers. In this one, she shows how changes in our political and cultural climate have influenced the corporation and are now undercutting the California park’s Caregiver brand and promise—and affecting Dori’s and her husband Bruce’s ability to attend events they used to love.

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‍Dr. Priscilla Hobbs’s Harry Potter Series: The Idealist:

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‍What we all need now is faith in the future, and to learn how we can be a part of the needed changes. After exploring many other characters in Harry Potter novels, Priscilla selects Luna Lovegood as a powerful example of the idealist archetype. “Idealists are not always rewarded within society, but they bring an optimism to even the darkest time because they simply experience the world differently. This is because they see the world through faith and belief, a trust that things have purpose and meaning, even if it’s something greater than us. Luna serves as a constant reminder for Harry to see things just a little bit differently, which gives him comfort during a time when he’s not feeling supported by the adults that matter to him, and when no one will believe him that Voldemort has returned.” It could even be that without Luna, he might not have succeeded in surviving his archenemy.

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Archetypes in Poetry by Judy Brown, poet laureate of this site

‍Judy Brown offered two poems, “Trough” and “Time Travel,” which you can find on my website’s blog area. They reflect how difficult life can feel and what to do about it. As is usual, with each poem Judy shares her experience of writing it, and I follow with my archetypal associations. Trough explores how to respond when thrown by something that makes us feel as if we had fallen into the ocean and don’t know what to do, utilizing scientific knowledge to make a counterintuitive choice. Time Travel links casual conversations between the living and those who have gone before us as a kind of time travel.The next poem, coming soon, helps us explore how we might recover from trauma—our own or from reading the news.

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‍Recommended Reading

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‍I was raised Christian by parents who were the real deal, in my view—that is, they loved others as themselves—but I, like many, could not understand how a loving God would send people to Hell. My husband, David, was raised by Jewish parents, attended a Hebrew elementary school, and identifies as Jewish, but is not a practicing Jew. Yet both of us have nostalgia for the prayers, songs, and rituals of our youth.

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Elaine Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels and a respected scholar, has a new book out: Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus. She reminds us that Jesus was Jewish, likely a traveling rabbi who was trying to help his people elevate their thinking in the context of the Roman occupation, not turn on their own to do something else that rejects their and his heritage. Taking us through the gospels and the New Testament as a whole, she places these texts in their historical context. In doing so, she reveals how differently authors of the gospels saw the meaning of Jesus’s “good news,” leaving lots of room for diverse thinking. Was it his teaching (Sage), his healings (Magician), or, a rather late view, his crucifixion to save humans from our sins (Warrior, in Joseph Campbell’s thinking)?

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Neil Douglas-Klotz, in Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus, further explores the “good news” in the context of the meanings of the language Jesus spoke in his time (Lover).

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“The reports of prophets and a holy people in Southwest Asia before Yeshua don’t relate that they loved their students. They offered wisdom, insight, threats, and even predictions, but not love. Yeshua offers the vision and example of a greater love, one that allows the heart to take a much larger role in human life. We can find this heart not only in our personal relationships, but also in our ability to perceive life around us more deeply and to make decisions with saba, our heart-will. Yeshua showed how to shift our awareness between self and soul, thereby mingling the One Life with our own life.”

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Perhaps books like this can help us all get along better, even if we live totally secular lives, as issues related to religion are influencing our politics, world events, and attitudes about one another.

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All the best,

Carol