“All cultures have developed their own mythology over time.
Mythology includes the legends of their history, their religions,
their stores of how the world was created, and their heroes.”
simple.wikipedia.org

Recently I watched my favourite TV show, “Touch”.  In this episode, there was a fellow who called himself   “The Invisible Prince”, modeled after a fairy tale about a prince who performed good deeds in secret. It was a wonderful story. And it got me thinking about myths.

As children we acted out fairy tales, assuming the roles of our heroes and heroines. It allowed us to see ourselves in a different way. Myths are the grown-up fairy tales; the stories which define us today. I believe we’re all living a story that we might sum up and elevate by giving it a different label; a myth. I think of a personal myth as a story we tell ourselves about our lives. It can be as magical or mystical as we want it to be.

As one friend of mine might affirm, we all have family myths; legendary stories about the past that have become larger in the retelling. My family mythology contains a wonderful story about my how my grandparents eloped. They ran away together to a nearby town to be married and were chased by her father and uncle on horseback to the church where they hid behind barred doors until the ceremony was finished. Our family history is rich in stories like this.

Not all present-day myths are as legendary as the story of my grandparents’ elopement. Some are everyday myths, tales about who we are and about the special way we live our lives.

I believe identifying our personal myth helps us to understand our lives and our place in the world. It reminds us that we are each, like The Invisible Prince, “Somebody Special”.

I’ve been trying to identify my myth for some time now. In the past I was the “Dancing Queen” wanting everyone to be on the dance floor enjoying the dance of life. I guess I still am the Dancing Queen today except that now I gather people here to have amazing conversations as we dissect things such as life and happiness. Yeah, I’ll keep the Dancing Queen myth. Besides, give me a song with a good beat and we’ll hit that dance floor with abandon! Yes – all of us!

How does who you are and what you do translate into a story that people will tell about you? What’s your myth?

 photo credit:  Doug Garner