THE BIRTH OF MYTH

A fascinating thing happens when you personally know a few Oscar, Tony and Emmy award winners. You're suddenly and palpably made aware of the enormous difference between the person and their new public image. In a way, you're present at the birth of a myth...!

Myths are not really lies, rather they are the powerful, collective beliefs by a society in something or someone that takes on an important life and truth of its own. Every society has them. Here we have everything from the Puritan Thanksgiving myth to the Founding Fathers myth, from Lincoln to Jesse James, from Charles Lindbergh to Neil Armstrong, from JFK to Elvis. In my case there are such additional family myths as my grandparents and parents migrating to America where with courage and conviction, they grabbed a piece of the myth we call The American Dream.

There are even those who would go so far as to say this is how God came into being -- the human race imagined him into mythic existence as the great parent we need in a violent, uncertain world.

Here's the point. Joseph Campbell was perhaps our generation's greatest student of mythology, and he examined its causes and consequences in delicate detail. But whenever he was asked if any particular myth were true or not, he would simply smile and say: "Yes."

The fact that my friends are still my friends even though they have now become living legends makes me suspect the issue here isn't whether or not we can empirically prove our myths. Rather, can we share them in our common pursuit of the good life together.

All of which leads me to this curiosity. I wonder over lunch what George Washington, Jesse James, JFK and Elvis would have to say to one another...?