Dear Readers:
You have made 2021 so much brighter for me. Have a Happy 2022!
Here's a New Year's Eve reflection on the importance of creative thinking, literature and story as
You have made 2021 so much brighter for me. Have a Happy 2022!
Here's a New Year's Eve reflection on the importance of creative thinking, literature and story as
- travelers' aids on the human journey;
- alternatives to the sword;
- and why the work we are doing is so important.
David Bentley Hart is one of my favorite authors. (If you're a dog lover, read Roland In Moonlight; the dog is probably a boddhisatva but definitely smarter than his owner. And, smarter than me. I had to look up a lot of his words, allusions and references!)
Hart just published a new novel, Kenogaia (A Gnostic Tale). I bought it yesterday and began reading it as a birthday present to myself.
It opens with a section of The Hymn of the Pearl from The Acts of Thomas. The poem is an ancient telling of The Myth of the Journey of the Human Soul. I hadn't ever read it. This morning I poured over it and listened to a lecture explaining it.
The story is about a rich prince who is sent out on a quest to find and bring back "the one Pearl, which is in the midst of the Sea, hard by the loud-breathing dragon."
On his journey he forgets who he is and takes on the ways of the people he lives among. Eventually, he remembers his true self and his mission. He finds the pearl. But it is guarded by a dragon.
What ensues is unlike any hero/dragon story I've ever heard.
The lecturer comments (~1:00:00) that in medieval stories a great battle would take place. The hero would draw a sword. The dragon would breathe fire. The hero would slay the dragon and take the pearl. Instead...
"He does something very strange.
"He begins to sing. He sings...to the dragon.
"You know what this is? There is a word called "enchant"... to enchant somebody is to bring about a magical result by singing...The ability for him to do this to the dragon is a part of his gnosis...And promptly the old dragon falls asleep. And he just reaches in, picks up the pearl and goes [away] with it...
"So, it's not a matter of fighting with the enemy...To bring out the sword and to kill the dragon is a dragon-like behavior." (~1:02:00)
This last sentence exploded in my head.
Up until that point, I'd found the lecture informative. But I almost stopped listening a few minutes before this section. I'm a Cliffs Notes type and thought I'd gotten the gist.
I almost missed "the pearl"!
Each one of us uses our words and minds for human flourishing. How can we get even better at
- composing songs & creating stories that enchant dragons? (I put designing products and services and starting new ventures in the same category as songs and stories since they begin in the imagination!)
- remembering our own true selves?
- finding our way home?
- And, inspiring others to go on their own journeys into wholeness and shalom?
****
Here are the sources I quoted
- http://www.gnosis.org/library/hymnpearl.htm (For those trained in textual criticism, you will see that I took phrases from both translations of the poem to describe the dragon sequence. If I could read Syriac, I would have attempted my own translation since neither English translation sounds quite right to my ears ;-) )
- http://www.gnosis.org/audio/951213.mp3 (Not sure who the lecturer is. His accent adds to the total experience.)