The Shape of Mythic Lies

Progressive, The, March, 1999 by Michelle T. Clinton

   There is a story that we are told.
   There is a story that we hear again & again.
   And so we hear the story and so we believe the story.
   The story is shaped like this:

   Once, in a time in the past
   there were people
   who were like we are
   except they were happier than we are now
   they were luckier than we are now
   they were better than we are now.
   Once it is clear that in the past
   people were happier, luckier & better
   than we are now
   something happens to them.
   Something bad happens to them
   & it's sometimes their own damned fault
   but sometimes it's not.
   The middle of the story is that
   the people lose their luck & their happiness
   through a terrible change.
   And the end of the story is that the people become us.
   And so we are unhappy & unlucky
   & maybe we've done it to ourselves
   & yesterday is better than today
   & here we are
   & don't be surprised if all this makes you depressed.

   This is the shape of mythic lies:

   exalted people in an exalted past
   a dreadful change
   & this horrible now.

   This story believes your best worth is in
   yearning for a lost time.
   This story is a thief.
   This story constricts the muscles of your heart

   & takes away the breath of your present.

   I am trying to warn you:

   Guard the region of your mind that takes to
   the shapes of stories.

   Beware the myth of flawless kings & glory-full cavemen on
   their hunt.
   Beware the story that starts in the garden & finishes in hell.
   Be aware: Our time is not downhill from perfection.

   Our time craves you, your feeling, your action.
   You are the one born for sake of your excellent presence.
   You are the one radiance in the center of our precious now.

Michelle T. Clinton, winner of an NEA fellowship and an Audre Lorde Writers Award, is currently a graduate student in progressive theology. Her most recent book is "Good Sense and the Faithless" (West End Press, 1996).