The horns of our dilemmas

Table in our living room; painting by Mark Fockler

“Clarity about being messed up invites divinity.”

So said mythologist Michael Meade yesterday at an all-day workshop on “Leaping Between the Horns” – an exploration of how to live with the contradictions and craziness of these times.

Goddess knows we need a bit of divinity—but are we clear about being messed up?

If you look into the eyes of many Americans, especially at airports and shopping malls (those bastions of patriotism), it does seem there’s a “malaise,” as Jimmy Carter called it in the 1970’s. I certainly can feel disappointment and depression in the air.

Meade’s presentation was a tour de force of poetry, song, storytelling, drumming, philosophy, mythology, and active questioning. He invited us each to consider where we are in relation to the divine spark (an eagle in an African story he told) that is the reason we’re here. Are we fulfilling our higher purpose? Are we living up to our genius? How many of our own best ideas have we squelched?

He invited us to jump between the horns of our dilemmas, to pay more attention to our wounds--to consider what’s the core tension in our life. What happened in early childhood that might have blocked us from our true purpose? What initiation experiences might be incomplete? “Your wounds and your gifts may come from the same place.”

Culturally, he pushed for “olders” to become “elders,” to engage creatively with younger generations instead of retiring to golf courses. “Culture is the sum total of its imagination,” he said. “The world can only end if it runs out of stories.”

What kind of future can we imagine? That’s the task for young and old to engage together, as we tell stories that leap through the horns of our many personal and cultural dilemmas.