I think we need a new mythology of love. I see so many people whose lives are burdened so heavily by their failures at trying to live the mythology they have been taught that it cannot be a good one.

Perhaps we just need less mythology about love - but no - I think we need our myths to shape our dreams. Not many people base their visions on scientific knowledge of the facts and nothing more.

They tend to try to live out what they have been taught, and rather than change their long held cherished notions when they fail, they add on a pile of screwed up data about how men or women don't seem to be holding up their end of the bargain. Then when they have healed sufficiently, they set out to once again to try to recruit someone to fill the role that is supposed to played in their life!

Our mythology is a mess. Romantic fairy tales from one era clash with the value systems of another, and get applied to people we meet who live with yet another set of hopes and dreams. People stand astride totally incompatible mores, living one way in one set of circumstances and yet expecting to be healthy and happy when they try to live with another set of values in other circumstances. I'm not talking about learning here, either, where the individual refines, discards, improves their personal rules. I am talking about people who might act one way during the week and another on the weekend, or shift in mid date depending on their assessment of the dates marriageability!

I am not sure, however, what form a better mythology would take. We certainly need to stop teaching little girls to expect to be swept off their feet by some Prince someday. We also should probably teach little boys something, anything! It would be nice if we taught them the same thing, in fact.

Perhaps some bold and visionary writer(s) of stirring fiction will take it upon themselves to create our new mythologies, and I hope they do it well. And I hope it helps - there are a lot of unhappy, unfulfilled people out there, and their helpless desire for, and need to, love is a key factor.

© Huw Powell
printed 28 March 2024

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