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Archive Number 3625 | ||
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Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 21:15:05 EST
MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I sent the request for surrender stories to Bobby Avstreih, who is not on the list now. (if you want to write to him - storyflute@hotmail.com) He responded: Hmmm. I have trouble understanding what "higher truth" means. Is it being used in a religious context, like a story of a saint? Or, does it mean "embracing your humanity" as in the journey of Oedipus to his beatification at Collonus? Or, as it means to me, surrender to yourself and your needs and essential dependencies, whatever form they take. (giving up hopes of redemptive 'perfection', while tiptoeing around the path emblazoned by Bill Clinton, Imelda Marcos, Jimmy Swaggert et al.) My favorite "stop fighting yourself" joke is from Peanuts: Lucy is sitting at her "Psychiatrist" booth. As Linus walks by, she hands him a very long list. Linus: "What's this?" Lucy: "A list of your faults." Linus: after looking carefully up and down the list, "These aren't faults. These are character traits!" Two Poems: Derek Walcott's "Love After Love" with that marvelous line "You will love again the stranger who was yourself." and one by Rumi which says "Nothing grows on solid rock" and urges the hearer to become "soft as earth". The Jataka Tale of "Great Heart, the Ox" (where the owner has to release his fear-dependent anger that the ox could lose the contest and replace it with love, meaning "being in need of or dependent upon another". There is a definite surrender of aggressive power and opening to a loving "higher power" that infuses this tale in particular). The Japanese tale "The Knight of the Toad" has always moved me. Perhaps the Japanese tale of zen master Hakuin and the great swordsman, found in "Peace Tales". I am sure there are ancient stories that feature the fact that the harder you try to push or pull at something, the more rooted it becomes, and that giving-up strength, skill, effort, and embracing "softness" or "let go and let God" or "open yourself to The Force, Luke" can serve as the key to unlocking the "gate".. In these type stories the realization of the "higher truth" is the gateway to achieving the prize or goal. Thus, the higher truth is the means, not the end. Hmmm, in this regard, I would look at stories from the civil rights movement, where the power of belief in a "higher truth" made it possible for people to "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize". I am sure there are rescuer tales that infuse this theme as well. I tell a version of the story of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who developed an "underground railroad" from Lithuania to Manchuria to Japan. "Higher truths" certainly were his motivation, but they were not necessarily spiritual or Buddhist or only moral. But he certainly did have to abandon his diplomat self, his successful self, in order to let himself be guided by his higher principles. I would think "AA" stories and other recovery stories would also be appropriate, but now I'm wading into Chicken Soup territory, so I better stop now. If the "higher truth" remains the "end" of the story, then I would look for a hero who first must say "I can't...". Then, through the process of doing/persevering, the "truth" of the "higher power" becomes manifest. I used to feel this way about Jonah, but that is not true to the meaning of the story, since he is not 'afraid' of his call, but rejects it out of willfulness because he disagrees with its objective (saving Israel's enemy). He surrenders to "the call" because he has no choice. Only at the very end, under the castor bean vine, does he himself soften and mourn. I even wonder if the way this question is phrased is a uniquely Christian way of framing it? I keep coming up with more Christian images, from Paul to the Quakers and The Alternatives to Violence Project, than to any other myth traditions. I'm looking forward to other points of view opening my perspective. Smiles, Bobby _______________________________________ ------------------------------- To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu ------------------------------- | ||