Oh God. Mythology? Belief? Innocence? What kind of hornet’s nest have you guys stirred up without knowing it?
Let me start with this: think about Barbie. Think about Disney movies. At least adults are pretty clear in their belief that Santa and the Easter Bunny are “myths.” Frankly, I don’t think adults know myths from their behinds. If myths are everywhere, of what importance is it to debunk, or not, the myths of our children? What importance is it to protect their innocence, when we have no idea how innocent we are?
Myths are everywhere. Myths are ideas that are represented by particular stories. There is the myth of the United States. It’s not that the US is fictitious; it’s that many of the things we beleive comprise the US exist to a greater or lesser extent. We have the myth of freedom, and liberty. We have a flag that symbolizes it all. We have Presidents and other freedom fighters of various kinds as mythic models for our kids. What we tell kids about Washington and Lincoln is just as mythic as what we tell them about the Easter Bunny.
Do any of you know what the Easter Bunny is really about? I don’t mean what he’s supposed to be about—the religious or commercial or fun loving things; what is he really about? I don’t have an answer for you, because I haven’t thought about it that much.
What about Santa Claus? He’s easier for me, because I have thought about him. Sure, the guy with reindeer that can fly doesn’t exist. The guy who can travel faster than the speed of light (how fast he’d have to travel to get to every child in the world in one night) without burning up doesn’t exist. But I would argue that that’s not Santa Claus.
Santa Claus is a spirit: a spirit of giving; of taking care; of helping children, especially the less fortunate ones. He is one representative of the idea of Christmas. And that, as far as I’m concerned, never goes away. It does exist. If I think of it that way, then Santa does exist, and always will, as long as there are people who want to be kind at a cruel time of year.
Barbie? Disney? Here are they things that don’t exist, but most adults believe they do. Barbie is the emblem of some kind of perfect woman for girls to grow into. Unattainable, of course—that’s why she was recently given a bodily makeover. Still, she stands for something that doesn’t really exist. The meaning of Barbie is powerful, and adults believe in it.
The same with Disney. Perhaps it’s clearer here. Disney has any number of princesses in any number of fairy tales which they have presented in cartoon, in period, and in modernized versions. They have the myth of the sidekick. They myth of the character who is isolated and always discovers something that enables him to win the race against great odds. They tell this story over and over in a variety of ways. It’s almost the only story they tell.
And it’s a myth. It doesn’t exist. Joseph Campbell would call it the hero myth. What it really is—is a way to structure a story. Life does not have convenient beginnings and endings. We turn things into stories by artificially assigning beginnings and endings. The idea of a story is a myth. How many people recognize that fact, or the fact that we are employing myths all the time?
Innocence? I wonder who is really innocent? We encourage children to play with Barbie and go to Disney movies, but we expect them to “grow up” at a certain time, and recognize things that are real and things that aren’t.
Well, I’m here to tell you that that is not as easy as you think. We all believe we can tell the difference, but we are ignoring a lot of inconvenient information. We underestimate the extent to which we mythologize our lives, but call it reality.
I think we should learn from our kids. Real or not real is not the issue. The kids know how blurry the line between reality and myth is. Parents worrying over when to tell, or if to tell about reality or myth are missing the point. What is important is the underlying feeling, not the reality. We tell kids the Easter Bunny is a myth, but not that Disney stories are a myth, yet both are equally fictitious.
Innocence? I don’t know what it is, or why we need to preserve it. We seem to do a damn good job of preserving our own innocence, and there is no problem in doing that! We don’t need to worry. Really. As far as I can tell, our kids are way ahead of us as far as the Easter Bunny is concerned.
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