Mythos is a Greek word meaning "story, legend, plot" and may refer to Myth or Mythology: the shared elements, characters, settings and themes in a set of works. Durkheim asked, “What holds a society together?” Marx wondered, “What changes society?” In both cases the answer is Mythos.
In its original form, mythos refers to the stories that were passed via oral tradition, having threads of religious, social, gender role, and contextual meanings. These stories give us, members of a society examples of appropriate behavior within our culture, for better or worse. This includes models for interpersonal interaction, as well as definitions of self. Myths are the cement that hold a society together through reinforcing community values, by making the mores highly visible and well known. In a modern context we get our stories from a much more diverse set of media: print, radio, television, and the internet.
Myths, like cultures, are not constant; rather, mythos are revamped and reinterpreted over time to fit with new information and peoples within an evolving culture. Shifts in cultural paradigms are reflected in the changes in the myths that each of us carries within ourselves. While this is a natural phenomena, shifts in cultural paradigms cause anxiety as we struggle to assimilate and adapt to the new myths. If the changes come too quickly or are too jarring, we may reject them. In times of extreme duress, we may find ourselves reexamining our original myths as we struggle to make sense of the swirling currents of change. I liken it to resetting a locked up computer to an earlier “restore” point.
Flag Day is one of those “restore points.” It is a time when we look back in order to make sense of that which is coming. And so this morning I share with you one of my restore points. Red Skelton was one of my favorite shows as a kid. His gentle humor and slapstick antics on his live comedy show were often best when he threw out the script and improvised. I will never forget this special show that he broadcast in 1969: http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/2010/06/pledge-of-allegiance-red-skelton.html. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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