Rethinking Myth & Story II

What can story teach us about this dilemma? Through the recent production of three prequel episodes—The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith—a new generation is discovering the magic and wonder of Star Wars, a movie saga that began in 1977. Let’s take a closer look at that original episode, A New Hope, and mine it for wisdom that might pertain to the matter at hand.

Luke Skywalker, a boy in his late teens, is living with his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru on a desert planet known as Tatooine. Here Luke has struggled with his life as a farmer, isolated from the action and excitement he so desperately craves. He secretly fears that he will become like his Uncle Owen, a man who has buried his desires and longings for life and adventure under a pile of duty, obligations, and drudgery.

Owen has settled for something less in life. Most students, if you really get a chance to know them, carry this secret fear with them as well. It is the fear that they will become like their parents—reality as seen through the eyes of an adolescent—and settle for a life of crunching numbers and balancing the checkbook.

Rethinking the First Step

All great stories hinge on the hero’s choice whether to step into adventure or not. Aragorn’s decision to forgo the life of a wandering ranger and embrace the journey set before him makes all the difference in the world to the free peoples of Middle Earth. Lucy’s first step into the wardrobe is the first step toward freedom for the land of Narnia. Marlin’s resolution to search the whole of the ocean for his son Nemo brings healing to a broken relationship and forms the foundations of a new one. Aeneas wills himself to venture from the burning ruins of Troy to found a new and powerful city, Rome. None of these characters see themselves as a central character in their own story. That is revealed only later, as the adventure unfolds. The world desperately needs people who are willing to accept the risk and set out to be difference-makers!

Rethinking the Choice II

The Polar Express (Van Allsburg 1985) captures this choice that faces the young: to set out or to settle? The hero in the story, a young boy on the verge of adolescence, has awoken one Christmas Eve with a troubling question: Is the magic of Christmas gone? You see, he overheard his parents saying that this Christmas marked “the end of the magic.” Isn’t that a question that we have all asked at one point or another? Where is the magic? Life overwhelms us with schedules, deadlines, and responsibilities. Our hearts crave the magic we encountered when we were young.

Suddenly a thunderous rumble shakes the foundations of the boy’s house. Hurriedly, he throws on his robe and rushes outside to see what is causing the clamor. To his utter astonishment, he sees an enormous train parked just in front of his lawn, where no tracks had ever been. The conductor steps out of one of the railcars and announces that the train is going to the North Pole. When he then asks the boy if he is ready to go, the boy hesitates. The movie version from 2004 portrays this moment of decision very well. To the boy’s left are the darkened houses of his neighborhood. It would be easy to give in to the cynicism and despair. It would require nothing of him to believe the lie, to believe that the magic really is gone. But . . . his heart cries out for something more. To his right is the brilliantly lit train headed for the adventure of the North Pole. For a moment, he steps away from the train. The conductor, sensing his indecision, pushes him to decide. He orders the train to start up and head out. Put into a situation where he has to decide, the boy at last chooses adventure and jumps aboard the train.

The journey is long and difficult, but in the end the boy encounters something greater than himself and, in the process, gains a better sense of what he has always possessed on the inside. The journey challenges him to once again believe, and to really see the meaning of Christmas. At the journey’s end, the conductor again slows the train to a stop in front of the boy’s house. Turning to the boy, he leans down and says, “One thing about trains . . . it doesn’t matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on.”

Rethinking Adventure

The child who chooses hope will begin to feel the restlessness of a traveler prior to a great adventure. He will begin to understand that maybe the opinions of others are not the final word on who he truly is. We need to prepare students for the moments when they will face these choices. It is crucial that we begin to teach them to see their circumstances through the light of myth and story. We have the opportunity to make them aware of the battle between hope and despair.

In this epic war between these two forces, we must teach the young people around us how to choose hope. However, if they choose hope, they will be confronted with a problem. What are they hoping for? That they are more than what the world sees or that they themselves see. We place our hope in the idea that there is something greater planned for us, and that life’s trials, however terrible they might seem, are meant to reveal something in us that is beautiful, valiant, and worth sharing. We have a hope that our story has a Storyteller, and that there is a plan and a purpose for our being here.