Recently I finished reading a disturbing novel by the name of Ishmael. It was small.. in length only... so I had no reservations in selecting the single copy from the shelf of my local Barnes and Noble.. thinking to myself "this will be easy". However... it was the most uncomfortable reading experience I could have ever imagined. But I simply could not set it down. I say disturbing with the utmost passion... to claim it as life changing would be an understatement. If I could force it in front of the eyes of everyone I know I would... If I could set up a podium and read every word aloud with the utmost clarity I would. While describing the book to a friend of mine recently, her face went pale and she recounted an anecdote of an acquaintance she encountered who had simply resigned from life after reading Ishmael... feeling so inspired, yet so inadequate, that he decided engagement with society was simply not worth the effort.
I feel silly even trying to summarize Ishmael, as I feel doing so diminishes its power or spills some kind of divine secret, but I vow to try. Ishmael tells the tale of a disenchanted man who responds to an ad in his local newspaper, "seeking a pupil trying to save the world". He is then called to the address of an abandoned office building and reluctantly enters, only to find an eerie room occupied by a full-sized, fully intimidating, talking gorilla. Said gorilla, Ishmael, proceeds to teach his pupil what is wrong with our cultural story, why it will fail, and what society must do about it. The novel then, is essentially a non-fiction dialogue, set within the bounds of a fantastical tale. Yes, I realize, a talking gorilla sounds silly, and when describing the plot to my peers I felt as though I was letting the gravity of the book fall through the cracks of my dialogue.
The rantings of this fictional gorilla however, have breathed their way into my everyday life and have made me see things so differently, in a way I really didn't sign up for. But I'm so thankful. Perhaps humanity's hope is dependent on my generation starting to feel discomfort creep in the back of our minds.
As Ishmael has taught me, each human is taught a cultural story upon which to base our lives. We begin our schooling the very day we enter life on this pale blue dot. We are taught things even bigger than religion and political ideals. We are taught what to value, we are taught how to live, we are taught how we got here, and we are taught who we are. There's no one to blame for the story we are force fed, because our parents were taught practically the same tale. We are taught, sometimes subtly, that our lives are a competition. No one escapes. We are taught to conquer our environment, nature included, that the whole world is ours for the taking. We are taught that "success" is our highest goal, in its many variations. What I am asking whoever is reading my little blog to ponder is "what if"... what if I teach my future children a different story? Even slightly.
What if I teach my children that life is not a competition, that they are blessed to be a part of nature and it is their obligation to cherish it, that their goal in life should be to nurture their spirit, to become exactly who they feel they should be? What if my generation taught our children a story slightly different from the one humanity has inherited for hundreds of years?
We live the story we are taught. Our human "story", our society if you will... is not instinctual... it is taught. Entirely. What if the next generation learns something even a little bit different.
Take it a step further now. Imagine what they could teach their children. The story will evolve over generations. If humans are taught to simply become who they truly are, perhaps mental illness will stop plaguing our societies. Perhaps if we teach children they are dependent, not dominant, to nature... our environmental catastrophes will dissipate, and we will take up our rightful role as lovers of the universe. Perhaps if we teach them they are not trying to win with their lives, poverty and war will cease to exist within the next few centuries.. because we will absorb the truth that we are dependent upon one another.
Stories are a powerful thing. We live and breathe by them. We raise children by them. We base economies on them. We start wars fueled by them. What if the story changed?
So good. Love this.
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