A myth is like a container where one keeps their most important stuff. The main contents of this vessel are one’s beliefs that act as the foundation stone for one’s behaviors and the response linked to myriad situations and circumstances.
As a child, I had a weird belief where I associated the quality of my day with the count of the number of black mynas that I encountered that very day. For instance, one mynah indicated bad luck which meant my day was gonna be really bad, count two meant that the day was going to be super awesome and the count three meant that I was going to receive some message. Slowly and gradually, these beliefs got washed away from the shore of my life. Now such beliefs don’t rule my world but these have been replaced with some other convoluted beliefs that are so intricately interwoven in my life like a pattern that it gets difficult to entangle. My childhood beliefs were much simpler. They somehow brought certain kind of order in my life, which was full of commotion. They might seem outlandish as there seems to be no direct correlation between good luck and the number of mynas, nevertheless, they did work fine for me.
Why did they work? The answer is simple because I wanted them to work. I wanted to believe in them and so they worked like a charm. Even a scolding from a teacher couldn’t spoil my mood as my day was supposed to be super awesome which was according to the count of the number of mynas. This was one of the realizations that dawned on me yesterday while reading the book ‘ The curious incident of the dog in the night-time’ by ‘Mark Haddon’. The author is trying to look at the world through the lenses of an autistic child. Different people have different myths, that is, different beliefs about their worlds. Ideally, two people for an effective communication need to have certain common contents in their ‘myth’ named vessel. Haddon in his book is just trying to elucidate that the world of this autistic child is very different from that of the so-called normal adults and children and yet it is so simple. The only reason we are unable to decipher his emotions is because of our complicated myths which don’t allow us to understand his world.
In essence, our beliefs determine our persona. They make us stronger and not only that, they also help us to understand each other. Let this new year demarcate new beginnings. It’s time to break free of all the old shackles that are holding us so rigidly. Let’s make an attempt to understand others by understanding the contents of their vessels. Let’s empty our vessels and pour in some new contents. Let’s just be free!
PS: #Week3#52weeksChallenge#49moreToGo!
