In this class once again the emphasis on storytelling comes alive, that stories have a way of connecting the past and the future into the present. Those stories being the life you're living now, your own myth. Against all odds, no matter how hard our past has been we as a person and a people will see the sun, we will keep on and live happily ever after. Thats what our future holds. Our lives will always be tough and if isn’t tough then it’s not worth the time of the gods.“because the gods get bored with men who have no stories” (Calasso). We have to put in the work, we have to fight for the happy ending we want.
As we realize our lives are just like myths, that have been told already we understand were not alone, that there's a reason we hear of similar stories of hardship. It’s because someone else has already walked in our shoes, has felt the same pressures we do, fought as hard as we have. So why even think that we wont make it through the troubles we have right now when we know others have. Hell were all in college, we all see our friends or just random classmates studying hard, feeding into the same temptations we do, get lazy and have to pull all nighters, deal with problems at home and at school. “whichever way her wandering husband went, the encircling sash of myth would wrap around the young Harmony. For every step, the footprint was already there” (Calasso). This is what has gotten me through this semester. All my struggle to help my mother out at home, to sacrifice all my time to work to help her out. She did it for me, she struggled to get me where i’m at. I may have stumbled but this class has reminded me i’m not the first one to have to do this. It’s almost a comforting notion.
I know that someone later will have to struggle the same way I have. Have to fall under pressure and get back up. The struggle doesn't end with me or get easier as more people go through it, it comes back. Maybe in a different incarnation but will always be a trial and tribulation for someone forging their own path. “history marches neither forward nor backward: it goes around and round in circles” (Llosa). Were all storytellers, our lives are rich in myth. They can inspire and can show that life goes on. Myth get started with lives being lived, hardships being shared, others listening to them and using them as strength to get on with their lives. Everything we are doing right now is a Myth.
Where I am from is a Myth and I love that. People ask me where i’m from, I say New York, they say “oh wow that’s so cool you're from there, its so great, why are you here of all places?” This upsets me. Im not sure where people have gotten this magical understanding of New York being a fucking beautiful place. It’s not. What you see on tv or hear about in music is a damn myth. Yes the architecture is beautiful, the art in galleries is wonderful, the theaters that put on plays are of great substance. But those are products of people. That isn't New York. If you said wow the people in that city are great then i’d agree, they bust their ass and work hard everyday. That’s the people, not the city. I grew up and got out of Queens, New York. Theres nothing great about that place. Theres nothing beautiful about having to grow up in that shit hole. What’s beautiful is the kids who are even able to make it out of there and survive.
“The monster does not need the hero. it is the hero who needs him for his very existence. When the hero confronts the monster, he has yet neither power nor knowledge, the monster is his secret father who will invest him with a power and knowledge that can belong to one man only, and that only the monster can give.” (Calasso) The Monster for me was Queens, New York. I was just a kid but damn was growing up here a hello of a life. Not in a good way but a reality check on life, I got that very early one, that I have to work my ass off every single day of my life. That what I wanted out of life, my obligation was going to be built on fire, not flash.
“But what do I have? The things I'm told and the things I tell, that's all. And as far as I know, that never yet made anyone fly.” (Llosa) Queens was rough, it taught me a lot about a hard life and what I need to do to get out of it. But those lessons alone will never be enough, the real work, real achievement was going to come from whatI do with that knowledge, how I apply that reality check I grew up on to my goals and make sure I succeed. New York is Myth but I'm the story.
New York is such a huge myth is disgusts me. All these fancy ass commercials about it being the “concrete jungle” “dreams are made here” is non-sense to get other people who dont know better to go and visit and spend their damn money. Though I get I am being harsh about it being that I grew up in a shit area and made it out. You dont know shit about New York unless you grew up there, lived and breathed the grime and dirt that makes up that city. You grow a hell of a tough skin, you learn how not to take peoples shit, and generally have an attitude. The myth is that New York is great place, its beautiful and it builds character. No it makes people who live there want to get the hell out. The Myth being the city, the truth is that it’s the hard working people, no not the musicians or actors who come out of that city, the people who run it and keep it together. The teachers, contraction workers, toll booth operators, policemen, fireman, subway workers, the kids who see more than the city. All those people are New York. Don’t ever forget that. I sure as hell haven’t.
Anyway now that that Myth rant is over I suppose i’ll get back to what I learned. I learned, no just refreshed my soul and memory about Myth being in my everyday life. Nothing is the worst thing that can happen. You have to keep going and keep fighting, realize others have gone through what you are right now and they made and so can you. That cycle is never going to end. Stories are our lives, myths are the people before and after us that will live the same story.
