KSFR Interview with Michael Meade Listen to an NPR interview with Michael Meade from KSFR, Santa Fe.
Listen to a concise NPR interview with mythologist Michael Meade on the wisdom that can be found in these dark times.
Finding the Right Trouble Listen to a New Dimensions interview with Michael Meade about finding the right trouble.
People "find themselves" when in some kind of trouble. What troubles
us always seems bigger than we are, it grabs hold of us and we find ourselves
being pulled deeper and deeper into it. That's the point of trouble: to get us
into deeper waters than we might choose on our own. People have problems
and can even handle them, but people "find themselves" when in the midst
of what truly troubles them.
Real trouble has purpose hidden in it; that's why it's so troubling to
us. Typically, serious trouble must develop for us to recall what is most
important to us. For what truly troubles us would also change us. Trouble
wants us to face up to it; to turn and face what we came here to learn about.
The right trouble draws on all our resources, making us more resourceful
and more aware of capacities we didn't know were there. The right trouble
can make us more resilient, more creative, and less troubled in general.
Those who would avoid trouble at all costs simply wind up in the wrong
trouble. In the end everyone gets into some kind of trouble, but wisdom
depends on being in the right trouble. Being wise doesn't keep us completely
out of trouble, but leads us to finding the right trouble to be in. That's a
message from the black dog: find the right trouble and learn from it who
you already are.
Excerpted from The World Behind the World
Run Toward the Roar Listen to an NPR interview with Michael Meade about Running Toward the Roar
The world, despite its disasters, tragedies and villainies, can't end unless
it runs out of stories. For this world is made of stories, each tale a part of an eternal drama being told from beginning to end and over again. As long as
all the stories don't come to an end the world will continue.
That's what I tell young people when they ask if this world will end
soon. And increasingly, young people ask about the end of the world.
Whether it be educated youth considering the dangers of global warming
and climate change, less privileged ones who feel the bite of poverty and the
growing disparity between rich and poor, or those exposed to the increased
threats of violence and extremism - modern youth grow up amidst threats
of natural disaster and nightmares of terrorism and can't help but doubt the
future of the world. Youth, who are expected to question their own future, come to question whether there will be any future at all.
Typically youth carry the unfolding dream of life; so it's startling to hear
young people wondering whether the world will wait for them to find their
way into it. When the end seems near everyone can feel old; even the young
become older than they should be. What story are we in when those carrying
the dream of life increasingly find themselves near the doors of death?
In this world, life and death both roar at the frailty of the individual
soul and it's easy to become prey to fear of either one or the other. As fears
about the world accumulate and terrors abound, I often recall an old African
teaching about fear. On the ancient savannas life pours forth in the form of
teeming, feeding herds. Nearby, lions wait in anticipation of the hunt. They
send the oldest and weakest member of the pride away from the hunting
pack. Having lost most of its teeth, its roar is far greater than its ability to
bite. The old one goes off and settles in the grass across from where the
hungry lions wait.
As the herds enter the area between the hunting pack and the old lion
begins to roar mightily. Upon hearing the fearful roar most of the herd
turn and flee from the source of the fear. They run wildly in the opposite
direction. Of course, they run right to where the strongest lions of the
group wait in the tall grass for dinner to arrive. "Run towards the roar," the
old people used to tell the young ones. When faced with great danger run
towards the roaring, for there you will find some safety and a way through.
Sometimes the greatest safety comes from going to where the
fear seems to originate. Amidst the roaring of the threatened and troubled world, surprising ways to begin it all again may wait to be found. As a poet once said, "A false sense of security is the only kind there is." Those who seek security in a rapidly changing world run right into the teeth of one dilemma or another. It might be better to run towards the roar and learn what it means to live in a time of many endings. In the end the only
genuine security can be found in taking the risks that the soul would take.
For the old soul in the human psyche knows that the whole thing has hung
by a thread all along.
Excerpted from The World Behind the World
KBOO Interview for Voices of Vets Listen to a KBOO interview with Michael Meade and veterans.
KUOW Interview Listen to an NPR interview with Michael Meade on the inauguration of Barack Obama
The Second Layer of Hope
It is the nature of hope to become lost; what begins with high hopes often ends in deep despair. Hope hid under the lid after Pandora's box opened, as if all the troubles of the world must be released before genuine hope can be found. Any hope for this hopeless world might have to be found inside the currents of despair that increasingly accompany the news reports of cultural unraveling and environmental disasters.
Initial hopes tend to be false hopes and high hopes that never reach the ground of reality. After naïve hopes have been dashed against the hard edges of the world a second level of hope sometimes appears, a "hope against hope."
For, what can be found at the edge of hopelessness and in the depths of despair are the images hidden in the soul, the core imagination that waits to be found when all seems hopeless and the end is in sight. The second layer of hope includes a darker knowledge of the world and a sharper insight into one's own soul. Perhaps it would be better to name the hidden hope "imagination," for it is imagination that keeps the world a becoming thing.
The core and crucial power of humanity is not simple hope, rather it is the capacity for renewal that attends the inborn powers of imagination. Hope is reborn each time someone awakens to the genuine imagination of their own heart. Hope springs eternal as long as people can find a sense of mythic imagination that can create ways to hold the ends and beginnings together, even when things appear hopeless to most.
excerpted from The World Behind the World by Michael Meade
New Dimensions Interview Listen to an interview with
Michael Meade from New Dimensions Radio:
The Ends of Time,
the Roots of Eternity Tales of Myth, Nature, & Culture
with author, mythologist and storyteller Michael Meade
The modern world suffers from "double exposure" as culture and nature, the "two great garments of life," seem to unravel at the same time. Culture no longer protects against growing threats of global terror and societal greed, while Nature becomes increasingly endangered through holes in the ozone and the effects of global warming.
Science and religion seem to arrive at similar conclusions as statistics and scriptures each predict the "end of the world." Is it the end of all time or a time of many endings seeking the vital ground of renewal?
MM: There are two great
creations in the world. One we call nature, the infinite
production of this elaborate, amazing green garment.
The other great creation of the world is the endless
creation of stories. "Myth" come from muthos, a Greek
word which means "stories", but also "the telling of the
stories." I would say it also means the living out of the
stories. Two great worlds 'the garment of nature and
the array of stories' endlessly intersecting in
meaningful ways' William Blake said that the
garden of the soul is already planted and is waiting for
the water of life. Call it the water of attention. There are
innate ideas, dreams, stories, buried in people. When
we don't water those seeds, culture loses ideas. It
loses imagination. It loses the capacity to dream itself
forward. I mean that literally. What happens to
someone whose innate core cannot grow?
Walking with Luis Rodriguez Excerpted from a January, 2002 interview with Luis
Rodriguez on public radio's KUOW, 'Weekday
with Steve Scher.'
LR: It is hard, long-range work that Mosaic
does and I haven't seen anything like it before. It's really about how to bring back the broken pieces of
community through story, poetry, singing and other
forms of art and practice.
The kind of work we do in Mosaic isn't a quantifiable
thing you can put in a little brochure and say 'we saved
twenty kids this year.' It doesn't work that way. We're
not talking about automobile parts. Young people go
through ups and downs, take steps forwards and
backwards. They might even do some terrible things
but you still have to hang in with them. They'll frustrate
you but you have to maintain this intentional place in
spite of their mistakes; a place where they can be seen
as capable of reaching a transcendent point. That's
what Mosaic does. It can be heartbreaking work and
you can even lose kids, but we're still there.
MM:The old idea is that culture represents the
stability and young people propel themselves away
from that and in doing so find the essence of
themselves. In this case there's nothing to bounce off
of, the're just bouncing along with changes in the
culture. It's as if they have a double dose of
uncertainty.
Interviews
Conversations with Mosaic teachers.