Christian mythology and saints weave in and out of life here, and we are steeped in its history.
Other mythological people -- larger than life musicians and artists -- arise from the same dust. It's important to note that the culture of the normal (non-mythological people) is also skewed the other way. Elvis today is a mythology. He and his patron saints rise and in Graceland, whereas the rest of the state is mired in poverty, prejudice and pride.
What other mythologies are there? Stories larger than life? Arching and encompassing generations, mythologies like the Greeks, the Norse, Romans, the Moors (Alhambra anyone?), the Arabians... each of today's culture seems to be swirling around on mythologies, still in this 21st century. Americans have the myth of the Wild West, of Babe the Blue Ox and Paul Bunyon, of Jesse James, not very old, but still fuzzy around the edges and larger than life.
Can we break the myth cycle? No, I don't think so. As individuals yes, okay maybe. Those brave souls that create their own mythology around them. Michael Jackson (brave and crazy)... oh all those artists we love and adore have some dis/reality aura surrounding them, the truth of their extraordinary lives... that they could have been mundane just like us. If not for something. What was that something? Belief? Faith? Talent? Hard Work? All of the Above?
Society needs its myths, its legends and stories. They wrap around us like down comforters, warm and fluffy and soft. The pain of life requires these stories, of birth and madness and death. We march on. We evolve ever so slowly.
St. Teresa -- I'll work for your love. Recently, I dreamed of my very first college roommate Teresa. She started out as a Econ major just like me. Just like me, she was lost in a sea of thoughts and men and socializing and studying. Who did we want to be? We lost touch after the first year, she moved to another floor and I was too absorbed in myself and my shit as usual. Senior year, I see she became a accomplished artist and was having a show in the University library. I remember her happy bright smiling face, her bouncy curly hair pulled back, her friends all around her, supporting her. Her parents in the background looking very proud. Teresa then had All of the Above. Where is she now??
