“Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.”
~ Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

The United States is one of the most mythical places in the world. It is built on myth. It expanded westward on myth. It envisioned its industrial empire on myth, and it created the American dream based upon the mythic imagination of the discontented. Problems started to arise when the dreamers began to believe their own myth as fact, when they named themselves the holders of the “true” stories. When the duality of their day-to-day lives, heightened by a level of contrast, blinded them to the ever-changing shapes populating the gray and purple.
I believe in right and wrong. I also believe in doing wrong for the right reasons, (which pretty much negates the wrong sometimes… I’m not too sure on that one but it’s my blog, I make up the rules.) I believe in a strong government that supports its people but stays out of their personal business. I believe fiscal responsibility means investing in education, welfare and infrastructure. I am an extreme, romantically inclined pacifist who understands the necessity to defend our country by force, and an animal rights activist who finds the name of my first company “Squish Kitty Productions” to be very funny. I am a conservative liberal, non-Christian who believes Jesus was a good man and that Buddha and he were drinking buddies. (root beer or sarsaparilla, naturally) I am proud to be an American but at times embarrassed by the actions of our government and people. But more importantly, as Mr. Twain stated over 100 years ago, I believe that one day I will be a pirate.   (more…)

Since I’ve been either too lazy or two busy or just too..too lately, I thought I’d post this excerpt from a friend’s blog Tracys10.  I like how she’s able to hold two opposing truths in her head at one time.  We should all be so luck.  Make sure you tell Tracy hi. Enjoy! ~ Steve

5 Reasons I’ll Probably never get Remarried:

1. the idea of it. [i long for rebellion. since i was a child it is in my nature to make the grades & never skip school, always give 110%, and basically follow all the rules. although this is my genetic makeup, my heart often wishes it could be different and i yearn for rebellion as if it’s a long lost summer love. why do we all have to do it the same way? at times, i am confident that marriage is an unnatural societal construct and ultimately, just a piece of paper. (Continue reading click here for Tracy’s Blog>>)

“His blood courses today in the veins of near a thousand who bear his name, and these are now scattered over a continent which, in his lifetime, was an unknown wilderness, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Then but a mere fringe of feeble civilization had effected lodgments along the seaboard; this, time has proved, however, to have been the seed of the most powerful empire on the globe.”
~ Ledyard Bill

I met a man who died in 1902. Ledyard Bill was his name, and I am proud to call him my 4th cousin, 5x removed. (I know, but it’s still kind of cool) His book, The History of The Bill Family, written in 1867, is still available on Amazon.com even today.  The book covers several hundred years of our family line, complete with private stories, recollections, records, certificates, drawings and yes, probably even a few errors and made up stories as this paragraph suggests:

“Though this work doubtless lacks the finish and elegance of style of other and similar publications, yet we have endeavored to make it at least a true and faithful history of the family; also something more than a mere ghostly genealogy, possessing by itself no life and little interest. All criticism might be barred, so far as things questionable in our plan are concerned.   Undoubtedly errors of dates and names will appear; it is extremely difficult in a work of this character to wholly avoid them, owing partly to conflicting statements received, partly to indistinct chirography, and partly to the printer, and also to a lack of vigilance in the supervision.”

Over the past several years I have taken it upon myself to become sort of the unofficial family historian. I would like to say it was because of some noble cause; family honor and that kind of thing. In truth, I took up genealogy at a time I when I was out of work and annoying my wife because I had nothing shiny to keep me occupied. (more…)

This is a conversation from the Ender’s Game series of books between a young girl and Jane, a seemingly omnipotent computer.

I’ve been talking to Ender and his sister, Valentine.  She’s a historian.
<Explain this>
She searches through the books to find out the stories of humans, and then writes stories about what she finds and gives them to all the other humans.
<If the stories are already written down, why does she write them again?>
Because they aren’t well understood.  She helps people understand them.
<If the people closer to that time didn’t understand them,
how can she, coming later, understand them better?>
I asked this myself, and Valentine said that she doesn’t always understand them better.  But the old writers understood what the stories meant to the people of their time, and she understands what the stories mean to people of her time.
<So the story changes.>
Yes.
<And yet each time they still think of the story as a true memory?>
Valentine explained something about some stories being true and other being truthful.  I didn’t understand any of it.
<Why don’t they just remember their stories accurately in the first place? Then they wouldn’t have to keep lying to each other.>

‘Excerpt – XENOCIDE by Orson Scott Card’

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Another wonderful extended scene from the Mythic Journeys documentary. Rev. Michael wasn’t at the original conference. About six months after the shoot a friend called and asked if we would be interested in interviewing Michael Beckwith for your documentary? Of course, that was a silly question. The very next day we were introduced to Rev. Michael at his Agape Center in Culver City. If you are not familiar with Rev. Michael you should be. He’s an incredibly warm and charismatic person, a frequent guest on Oprah and is perhaps best known for his appearance in the movie, The Secret.

Make sure you visit the Imaginal Cells YouTube Channel for more videos.

Sometimes in the evening, my wife and I like to relax in front of the TV and watch old television shows; shows like Starsky & Hutch, Columbo, The Night Stalker and yes, even an occasional Greatest American Hero. Mindless Novocain to numb the daily stress, and a nice juxtaposition to the yelling and screaming of today’s news and reality shows. The future really is here, with on demand technology, making it easy to download almost any show you can think of, and watch it on your home TV. All in all, none of this very different than how a lot of people spend their evenings.

Last night, we snuggled under our Snuggies for one of our favorite shows, The Rockford Files. The great thing about Rockford, besides the fact that it is was one of the few shows that never “Jumped The Shark,” (Ask your kids) you can’t help but be in a good mood right from the opening credits when you hear James Garner on the answering machine, “This is Jim Rockford, at the tone leave your message.” And after a short humorous message the theme song (back when they had theme songs) kicks in. It just makes you smile. Try it. Try not to smile when you hear the theme song from The Rockford Files. It’s not humanly possible. (more…)

When it comes to reading books on Mythology I just must be stupid. Maybe stupid isn’t the right word, perhaps uneducated. No, that’s not exactly right either. In some areas I’m highly educated, while in others, especially ones like math, geography, and early Mesopotamian art, I just don’t care enough about the subject to be educated on it. Math? We’ll what the heck did we invent calculators for? Geography? What’s the average lifespan of a country these days? Besides, I have a GPS and Google maps to tell me where I am and where I want to go. As for Mesopotamian art, I really don’t have anything against it, I’m sure it’s great, even if I knew what early Mesopotamian art was.
But it seems that many times when I pick up a book about mythology, I start reading and about 4 or 5 pages into it, once I get past any of the shiny pictures, I have to put it down because I just don’t understand a word the author is writing. What makes this even sadder is, I have studied mythology and I still have this problem. So either I must be stupid, or many of these authors don’t know what the heck they are talking about. (more…)

FROM THE INTERVIEW WITH LYNNE KAUFMAN:

“Right now what’s speaking for me is not a lost personal love, but it’s that sense of doubt. It’s that thing of faith, and you know, I’m a writer. I have to believe every time I sit down at that blank screen that I have something to say, that there is something I want to say that is going to reach people. And it’s that’s moment of trust when there is no validation and you want so much to have that proof, something that’s there, and you have to go on into the not knowing, that, and trust that it’s going to happen. And that’s I think, that moment of doubt, of self doubt, of wanting to grasp something that can’t yet be grasped but just trusting and moving forward into the light. And that’s the myth.”

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FROM THE INTERVIEW WITH MAREN TONDER HANSEN:

“It is so important for girls to have images and models of feminine leadership and a story of what is the feminine psyche. How are women powerful. And I know there’s not just one way that women are powerful. But. – Inona did it this way. Well Isis did it this way. Well Demeter did it this way. That is a really valuable collection for girls living in a culture which we all are now that’s predominantly has male protagonists and male powerful people in the stories. So that was very moving to me, to realize that the girls had been given a gift of a female role model in that story. And I think that I want to tell the first little part of that, of the Inona story…”

Hi all, I’ve been busy on a shoot and haven’t had time to write lately. We’re also trying to get the book version of Mythic Journeys out as soon as we can. So most of my writing energy is going into that. So I thought I’d post this interview from this week. LA Talk Radio’s The Sheena Metal show. I’m hoping to be back up and writing by this coming week. Oh wait, I just had an idea for a story. Now I have to find time to write it.
If you’re interested in being a guest blogger on Into The Mythic send me your info. We look forward to hearing from you.
In the meantime, enjoy the interview. Email your questions, and have a great weekend!!!
Steve

If you’d like to hear the entire Sheena Metal Experience show and archives of her past show visit: www.LATalkRadio.com

IN HONOR OF WOMEN’S MONTH – FINISH THIS SENTENCE:

“If women could teach men one thing….”

 

Most thought provoking answer receives a copy of
Colette Baron-Reid’s new book THE MAP

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I’m late.
I’m late!
For a very important date.
No time to say hello, goodbye
I’m late, I’m late, I’m LATE!
~ The Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland

It’s a strange world these days, indeed. We put such a level of importance on every aspect of our lives. We tweet our every whim, post our current shopping spree, rush home to catch the latest 24/7 breaking news flash, text, drive, drive and text, phone calls, soccer practice, school, work, and don’t get me started on the actual important stuff I should be doing rather than writing. If everything in our daily lives is so important, what is unimportant? What is left that we must do without, simply because it is so unimportant it becomes unnecessary?
The answer is very simple: pleasure.
I’m not saying that we have no pleasure in our lives, however most of us take our pleasure from am important job well done. We check off the tasks from our list of accomplishments, and quickly move to the next item on the to-do backlog: a seemingly endless list squeezed into a finite number of years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and those little evil seconds that tic away. Seconds that rap their cadence to the sound of growing stress, pressure and panic. Seconds that add up, one by one, until they become minutes, and then hours, and… “Oh my god, I’m late!”

Breathe….. (more…)

Disclaimer: The story you about to read is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent because there aren’t any. But I will deny the events ever happened if the authorities read this.

That’s right I’m an ex-con, a felon, or if you prefer the Latin translation, ex-captus incarcerata. Okay, I might have made that last one up. But that’s what we cons do; whatever we have to to survive on the dark streets of middle class suburbia.
You see what happened was I got this traffic ticket that I didn’t quite agree with. So I went down to this great American justice system of ours and I said, “Your honor! I’m not going to pay that ticket!”
And he said, “Well son, you’re going to jail.”
So that’s where The Man sent me; Row C, Cell Two, Bunk Four of the Orange County Municipal Jail. Which to tell you the truth, is not a very good place for a young blond hair kids with glasses to do time. Hard time. But then again, what time isn’t hard when you hear the tic, toc, tic of life wasting away behind bars.
I shared a small cell with three other guests of the state; an arsonist, a burglar and a drunk grifter. I can’t remember what he had done, but everyone called him DT.
Every once in a while someone would ask me, “Hey, what are you in here for?”
I’d look at them with my best Clint Eastwood smile and say, “…Traffic violations.” (more…)

Several years ago, I was in one of my typical religious debates with a typical religious fundamentalist. The debate was escalating, much to my amusement, to a level that was beginning to bother the neighbors, when suddenly my opponent shouted out, “That’s because you don’t believe in God!” Without hesitation, and with uncharacteristic fervor I blasted back, “Don’t believe in God? Hell, I was raised by her!” (more…)

September 9,1996 I have to say that taking your new bride to a strip club on your honeymoon is not the best move. I could be wrong. I would like to say we were on an expedition to photograph arctic wildlife, or maybe to take a quick invigorating dip in a polar ice pool. But no, our first adventure as man and wife, began as a simple errand for a friend. While on the plane the day before I was leafing through an Anchorage in-flight magazine. Partly because I wanted to be a well-informed tourist but also to avoid talking to the elderly woman seated next to me about her dead husband. I had already read through all the unique Sharper Image gifts you could purchase while on your trip to the great Northwest as well as finished the crossword puzzle in order to appear intelligent to the passengers around me. I always like to put the finished crossword puzzle back in the seat pouch. I figure when the next person who sits there after me opens up the magazine and sees the completed crossword they’ll think, “Gee, the person who sat here before me must have been really intelligent.” Just before I folded the magazine and returned it to its pouch an advertisement caught my eye. “The Great Alaskan Bush Company – A Fine Gentleman’s Club.” Hmmm, shall I read on? Despite the obvious oxymoron of the title, the rest of the advertisement was well put together, informative yet crudely sexy. “That’s it!” I shouted. “I’ve found the perfect best man gift.” Up to this point I had failed to find the appropriate gift for my best man and friend David. And by appropriate I mean something that showed how I really felt. Like the 4 foot tall Garth Brooks wall clock laminated to a thick piece of driftwood that I bought for his wedding gift. Or the life size llama I built from balsa wood and cotton balls to celebrate his 18th birthday. Now I knew the gift that would say how much I cared. “Honey, we need to go to the Great Alaskan Bush Company.” Most women would have answered with a “Whaa?” or a “Not on my honeymoon” but to my surprise my new bride said, “Sure.” It wasn’t until we landed that she actually asked why we were going which made the whole excursion that much more…what’s the word I’m looking for?… seedy… I mean special. (more…)