[Marianne]

Hi, Sidean MSJon and Everyone,

I am deeply interested in personal myth; before I knew of a term or name for it, I sensed personal myth’s presence in my life and could see this type of thing in operation in the lives of my family members and friends. Too, surely, some of this was the myths we lived together. As a writer, musician, and Jungian, all the things I love tend to myths and to those myths like stories and song and dance within my personal myth.

As a child I ran the woods around my house by the lake, and it was kind of like a fairy tale existence for me and my friends. I was lucky to have a mom who loved the arts and all things culture, so she took me to the library twice a week before I could even read and all though my early years until I could go myself. She was musical and played piano and organ and noted I was musical so made sure I had piano and dance lessons. Oh and because we lived by one of the Great Lakes she also made sure I had swimming lessons. My dad loved folklore and folk music and cartoons and telling stories. I was fortunate to have a charmed childhood. But that does not mean everything always came up roses. There is also poison ivy in the woods and ships and boats sometimes wrecked. But whether about the happy and glad or the sad I wrote things down, including my nighttime dreams. I wrote about owls I heard or turtles I found in the yard by the pond. I wrote my first poem in kindergarten. It went like this:

 

I found a frog

sitting on a log

and chased it but lost it

because there was fog.

 

Ever since I was a child I have loved studying ancient cultures and their myths and folklore from around the world, and the arts. My best memories in life are the books I have read, the films I have seen, the songs I have learned, and the dances. And then my times out in nature. That is true to this day. It to me is like a reel of film of my life story entwined with movies and theater and ballet, with the music throughout my life the soundtrack of my life. I spend most my life and time writing about my personal myth in the form of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. As a writer by vocation (yes, at one time I did write for a living in A & E and community/human interest stories and moonlighting as an adjunct prof teaching writing) and a Jungian, I am very much about personal myth. I always say that the word myth as a word scramble is thym—thyme, or time. The myths emit in time and time emits through the myths and thus is the spice of life within its time and goes down in time. And here in thym, we can see half the word rhythm.

As Stephen  brought up, some people do say that personal myths and memoir allow us to sugar coat the past if we want to, but not everyone does this. I have mostly good memories and they are true memories; however, I do not sweep all dust under the rug either, and recognize the difficult or sad things from my past also.

I will later add another post response about what characters and/or situations from classical or non-classical mythology I feel akin to in living their/that myth.

All for now, with gratitude for this lovely fun and personable topic,

Marianne