What myth were we raised on? Every one of us was raised on myth. When the mythology we were raised on failed us, what did we learn?

The myth I was raised on was a lousy myth. It was such a bad myth that I didn’t want it to be my story. I didn’t realize the larger cultural stories that were limiting my world until later. The tale of society that I was told centered on men, white men, everyone else was supporting cast. Girls could aspire to be princesses, but once they found their prince, their lives ceased to be remarkable and they went into the west like Tolkien’s elves. But the men, they could build bridges and sky scrapers and go to the moon; even after they got married. Men had support systems, they had a wife who helped them with the boring details so they could focus on the important things. Santa had his elves to help him do his important task. Willy Wonka had the Oompa Loompas. The entire world was made up of stories written from the viewpoint of those men. But on the underside of these tall tales of mythic heroes, the tales of women grew.

Women’s tales were not the tales of conquest and bravado, they were the tales of kings who would blindly go out without clothes if the women in their lives didn’t dress them. Women’s tales showed the hollowness of the pedestals that society placed certain men upon. Women’s tales took the truth about princesses and their happily ever afters and pinned it to the clotheslines lined up in endless rows behind all the mortgaged castles. Yeah, no. I didn’t want that tale. But I was growing up in a time when that mythos was failing. There was still a large push to keep it going but it had become too heavy with lies for it to even rise to its feet. I participated in many firsts that I didn’t realize had never happened before. The mythos kept telling me one thing but my experiences were telling me something utterly different. I didn’t have to stop being the princess. If I didn’t get married my life wouldn’t lose meaning. I could build bridges if I just acted like a man. I could build skyscrapers if I didn’t wear pink. I couldn’t go to the moon yet, but maybe someday, thanks Sally Ride! I still have a headache from every glass ceiling I bumped into. But while my tales of who and what I could be changed, not everyone else’s did.

What happens when there was a myth that we really wanted to be true and we find out it’s not? When we realize that our personal happily ever after is no more real than the Tooth Fairy? There are many examples available: home ownership, happy marriages, children, grandchildren, family legacies, business success, and generational wealth along with others. Each generation is promised outcomes that no one can possibly guarantee. But we are told if we do the right things, in the right order, that we can achieve these outcomes. People follow the advice and do not achieve their success, leading to many becoming cynical, giving up, or angry because they did everything they were supposed to and they were betrayed.

Usually the group explaining how to achieve these outcomes is set to profit in some way from the next generation following the prescribed pathways. A lot of those are relating advice on how they made their fortunes while knowing that the societal gates that were open to them in the past are now shut. They may even have had a hand in closing them themselves. In effect, many people were betrayed. Their betrayal was then framed as their naivete. Which could be reasonably called “adding insult to injury”. What we learned from all this, varies as much as the ideas behind our hopes for our futures.

Think about the myths, the tales you were raised with. Who told them? Who benefited? How old were the stories? Was it Disney? Was it your family? Was it your church/temple/holy place? Don’t forget the advertisers. Thunderstorm is here. I’ll finish for today.