The Myth of Er

The Myth of Er

Human beings are complex creatures. We are biological, chemical, electrical, magnetic. We are body and mind, spirit and soul. We are permanent voyagers, harbored in a temporary vessel. We are more than the sum of our parts. In the cosmic scheme, we are less consequential than one grain of sand to the desert, and yet we are connected to each other and to everything in this universe (and maybe all other universes) magically and mysteriously in ways which we cannot apprehend nor comprehend, but with great certainty, simply cannot deny. We have a destiny, a calling.

Many years ago, I read a book review in the Sunday business section of the Chicago Tribune. Why did my eyes stop at that article? Why was that the one and only day of my life when I read the Chicago Tribune Sunday business section? I'd credit fate, or destiny -- although my sister Marianne also has read the book and knows the author's works well. If my eyes had not found the book that day, Marianne would have told me about it at a later date. But I would not have been able to apply what I learned as early.

In The Republic Plato wrote The Myth of Er which states:

"When all the souls had chosen their lives, they went before Lachesis (one of the three fates, the one who spun the length of the thread of our lives). And she sent with each, as the guardian of his life and the fulfiller of his choice, the daimon that he had chosen."

The myth says that unto each soul, each of us, is given a unique daimon (guardian angel) before our birth, and that our soul has selected an image or pattern we are to live on earth -- our destiny. Our soul-companion, the daimon, guides us here; in the process of arrival, however, we forget all that took place and believe we come empty into this world. Our daimon remember what is in our image and belongs to our pattern, and therefore our daimon is the carrier of our destiny.

We elected the body, the parents, the place, and the circumstances that suited our soul and that belong to its necessity. There, our circumstances, including our body and our parents whom we may curse, are our soul's choice -- although we do not understand this because we have forgotten.


So that we may remember, Plato tells the story and says that by preserving the myth we may better preserve ourselves and prosper. The most practical use of the myth is to entertain the idea of viewing our life's story -- ideas of calling, of soul, of daimon, of fate, of necessity. The myth implies that we must pay very careful attention to childhood to catch early glimpses of the daimon in action, to grasp its intentions and not block its way.

There are other practical implications of the myth. (a) We must recognize the call as a primary fact of human existence. (b) We must align our life with its call. (c) We must find the common sense to realize that accidents, indluding the heartache and the natural shocks that go along with them, belong to the pattern of the image, are necessary to it, and help us fulfill it. We must heed our call.
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Here are two of my own songs which addresses the same issues raised by the Myth of Er, only differently. The first is untitled. I call the second Praise the Lord. PTL might shed some light into the darkest of nights.

Untitled

Lost between a hard place

a hard place and a fall.
Found out in an open field,
stopped against a wall.
Languishing self-pity, ever bitter doubt.
Jumping like a kangaroo, maniac spirit out.
Dislodged, disheveled, circumspect,
Lust at last revealed.
All in Place! Attention! Stand!
Disorder on the field.
Primordial screams, archetypal dreams,
unconscious on the run.
Sanity falls, there are no walls,
I'm just having fun.

Lost between a found place,
a found place and a whole.
Floating aimlessly in space,
stuck outside my soul.
Gushing overconfidence,
dead set in my ways.
Tripping on an earthworm,
subterranean days.
Prependicular's pointed wrong,
must have too sad turn.
Horizontal standing up,
too tall I may yet learn.
Up-to-date technology, overleaping mind.
Atavistic vacuum, prehistoric find.
In the place I'm in at last,
eternally complete.
Losing winning's unclaimed prize,
vicotry in defeat.

Solidly not fragilely, flexibly not stiff.
Accepting only what it is,
not what it might be if.
I'm here in there and there in here,
looking from without.
Understanding what it's not,
and what it's all about.
The journey started long ago,
detoured along the way.
I'm pleased at last to understand.
What? I have no need to say.

PRAISE THE LORD

(Chorus) Praise the Lord, I can't explain
Why I never call His name
When danger or troubles are so near.
Praise the Lord, but I'm not blessed.
I'm withering in your tenderness,
for never grateful, this I do confess.

#1 The bright-eyed, shoining fair-haird boy,
his mother's little pride and joy,
for years always played authority's game.
Family was so proud and praised so loud
They overlooked the cloud disguised
As silver lining overhead (Chorus)

#2 The happy charming grown adult, who never let his anger out
Least not when judgmental ones were there.
He was loved where 'er he worked
and from his labors never shirked
But always saw half-empty glass. (Chorus)

#3 But time came like it comes to all,
to answer to his life's work's call
and to a different beat he'd always timed.
So when he saw his life a lie, how he reacted made them cry
and call the doctors to help straighten out his mind. (Chorus)

#4 And when he'd tossed it all away
and smiled with joy to greet each day,
they were quite hard pressed to explain.
What could be said, while doubts did linger
With nowhere left to point a finger?
It could only be a miracle.

Revised Chorus: Praise the Lard, I can explain
that I only call His Name
when Love and Joy and Peace all are near.
Praise the Lord for I am blessed,
I'm growing in His Tenderness
forever grateful, this I now profess.

I've become confused now, about which of these lyrical poems explains the dark days and which one explains the bright nights. However, because of the duality of reality, man and nature, it is appropriate that things be thus. Salam.

PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC HEALING LESSON #6:

Since you can't please everybody, you've got to please yourself.