It’s the End of the World – or the Beginning of a New One! Question: What are Your Sustainability-driven Songs, Symbols and Stories for the New GreenWorld Mythology?
Submitted by Willi Paul on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 12:21
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It’s the End of the World – or the Beginning of a New One!
Question: What are Your Sustainability-driven Songs, Symbols and Stories for the New GreenWorld Mythology?
Resources
I. “The old story that gets in our way is that of disempowerment and disconnection. Because people feel small and disconnected and that their acts don’t matter, they lose connection to the immense power and wisdom of nature which can guide and heal so effectively and richly. By living from and relating to a whole person, whole planet paradigm, our potential is limitless.
Life has shifted as we have redeveloped local skills, use locally and regionally appropriate materials to meet our needs and have turned a monstrous waste stream into an elegant and creative culture of creative reuse. People more often choose to turn their lights and life down as we gracefully and ethically descend peak everything. And there you sit under the soft-glowing beeswax drip of another hive gift, bathed in the light of a well-lived, well-luved and well-designed life.”
Trathen Heckman Interview on PlanetShifter.com
II. “When I think of particular colors, icons and symbols for sustainability, I imagine colors like the greens of fresh grass, the deep sea and fir trees, warm natural hemp and tobacco colors, a little dash of earthy brown and some pale robin’s egg blue. The typical icons include trees, plants and leaves, hands holding hands or 3 arrows bent into a circular form – like the recycling symbol, but I also see something like an interconnected network – like a mind map where each element is connected to many other ones, making up a web of complexity. “
Amy Stafford Interview on PlanetShifter.com
III. Willi's Green Box - New green stories and myth generator:
- Survival behavior
- A new practice (refined behavior)
- Pleasant or valued routine
- Spiritual linking to new story making and new symbols
- Global mythic story
(1 vote)
Comments
mythology
Prior to the spread of literacy, mythology was the most memorable way humans were able to pass moral tales and life lessons on to the next generation. We repeat this tradition in films, in music and in literature.
I think there's been an undercurrent of fear that we would be the source of our own destruction, and this is reflected in the legends we recount to one another. Concerns about how abusing the environment or exhausting our resources play a heavy role in those tales. The Biblical story of Moses beating a stone with a stick, instead of asking it, for water, then being punished, can be construed as a good lesson in that we're not the only creatures worth respecting on this planet.
And a good example of how the green movement inspires our modern mythology can be found in films like Wall-E and Avatar -- which are heavily moral and inspired by both history and legend. :-)
Posted by Angela Natividad, LinkedIn