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Changing My Mythology


I recently attended the Austin Television Festival and got some interesting insights.  It was great fun and I learned so much.  One of the things that I thought about after a panel about the mythology of television is about my belief system.  What are the general truths I believe about my world or society I live in?

When I am watching television or a movie, especially horror or scifi genres, it is completely normal to suspend my preconceptions about the world.  In order to immerse in the story, I buy into the world and focus on the relationships, plot, and characters.   I don't spend time or energy questioning the details of the world because I don't expect it to be like my everyday world.  I don't worry about if the car could really fly or the person could really be a vampire.   It is the mythology the way I am drawn into the world and how believable the characters are that matters to me.  I can understand the metaphors and parallels to my life and experience.  The feelings and motivations are what keep me interested.

But when it is a world that I think I know, one I am familiar with like law enforcement, politics, the military, or entertainment industry, then I get very picky about the rules and how they are being followed.  This often results in my losing the thread of the story and the empathy for the characters.  I don't believe their world, so I don't believe them. 

How do I do that in my own life?  Well, when I think I know the rules and how things are "supposed to be or work" I get caught up in resentment or worrying about how things aren't going according to the rules.  I lose the thread of my own story. 

I could just buy into the world the way it is – embrace reality.  Then I could focus on my feelings and motivations and character development.  I could let things unfold.  I would have more energy for dealing with life instead of fighting life.  Since the "rules" I think should apply are completely subjective and my own invention, I can change them.

What if I create a new mythology for my own world.  I already do accept a complete set of preconceptions about how things work, it's just that most of them were created by someone else.  If I don't test the rules and just abide by them, I will never figure out my own beliefs.  Every time I have questioned a belief, I have gotten a strong indication of whether it was really true for me or not.  Sometimes I completely changed my thinking and sometimes the belief got stronger.  It is important to question, to examine what I stand for and what my values are, so I can live life on life's terms.
 
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