100 Ways

28. Read something beautiful.

Fall quarter has officially started and I am in my second quarter of college. Unfortunately, due to priority registration, I didn’t get all the classes I wanted. I was, however, blessed with the opportunity to get enrolled in a Mythology class. Today marks week three in the class and I have to admit, I love it already. We have five books to read through, each one explaining different cultures and their myths. Our first assignment in the class was the read about the Creation according to Egyptians, Mesopotamians, the Hopi, Hebrews, Judeo-Christians, Greeks, the Bantu, and the Modern Big Bang.

And those are great myths. They really are. But they didn’t grab my attention. They didn’t demand it, capture it, hold it. But there were two that did.

The Native American myth we read said that the creating power had made the world but the people who lived on it did not know how to behave. So he burned it. He made another world, but, again, the people did not behave. So the Creating Power sang three songs and brought the heavy rain. When he sang the fourth song, the earth cracked open and water poured out of the cracks and flooded the entire earth. Nothing survived. Except for the crow, who flew high above the ground but soon grew tired. He asked the Creating Power three times for a place to rest. The Creating Power sang a song and drew out a loon from his pipe bag and asked it to dive underwater and bring back up some earth. The loon dived down but came back up with nothing. The Creating Power then took out an otter from his bag and it also dived down, but came back with nothing. The Creating Power took out a beaver and it dived down, but came back with nothing. And then the Creating Power sang a fourth song and brought out a turtle from his bag. The turtle dove into the water. But he didn’t come back up. The animals cried out that the turtle was dead. But the turtle had a strong heart and after a very long time, he came back up. But unlike the other animals, he came back up with mud on his feet and inside his shell. The Creating Power took the mud and made a new land and told the Crow that he could finally rest. The Creating Power spread out the mud until the entire earth was covered in dry land. In pity, he said, “Water without earth is not good. But land without water is not good either.” So he cried tears upon the land and created rivers, lakes, and oceans. He then made all the animals. The Creating Power made man from white earth, red earth, black earth, yellow earth. He told the people that he burned the first world and drowned the second and this was the third world. He created the rainbow as a sign that the Great Flood was over. Whenever they saw a rainbow, they would know that the rain had ended. He said it was time for all creatures to live in peace, the two-legged, the four-legged, the many-legged, the no-legged, and the plants. He told them that if they could not do that, he would destroy this world, too. He thought to himself, “Someday, there might be a fourth world.” And then he rested.

That was the first one I read. And I loved it. I’m just so used to stories in which gods are seen as perfect and even things that seem shocking to us are seen as praiseworthy by them. Gods are seen as something worth worshipping and they can do no wrong and if they did wrong, they weren’t the good gods, they were demons. So reading this myth in which the ultimate power made mistakes with the world and had to start over not only once, but twice, was great to me. And it also humbled me.

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned this before but I was raised in a Catholic environment. I have Catholic grandparents, a Catholic mother, a Christian aunt, and I went to Catholic school for the first four years of my education. I don’t claim to be a Catholic or a Christian but many of my beliefs do have a Catholic basis. I do believe in a higher power. I believe that I am set on a destined path in life. I believe that we all go to a Somewhere when we die and we are rewarded and punished for the deeds we committed in our lives. That it was I personally believe.

So in reading this myth, I saw a power that not only made mistakes, he punished the world and then gave it another chance. No crimes go unpunished. Or I believe they shouldn’t be. So this creating power comes up and says, “I gave you a chance to do good and you didn’t take it. So that’s it.” And then he takes it all away. But then he gives it back.

I can’t really explain why I love it so much. Just the message of…do good. Be good. Be good and prosper. Be wicked and be vanquished. Why be wicked when you can be peaceful? Be peaceful and be kind.

The other one I liked very much was the Rig Veda from India. It says that in the beginning, not even nothingness existed. There was no air, water, death, life, darkness, light, or heavens. And then the One breathed out and the One was alone. And then came the darkness wrapped in darkness and the One came into being. And from the One came all in existence. And in existence, desire for knowledge grew larger and larger. Everyone wants to know how the universe came into being and where it came from. But even the gods came later than creation so even they don’t know.

“Whence all creation had its origin,
He, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
He, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
He knows – or maybe even he does not know.”

I may believe in a higher power but I also believe in evolution. We evolved from single-celled organisms, I get that. But sometimes, I can’t help but wonder where it all came from. Where did the single-celled organisms come from? And wherever that came from, where did that come from? And where did that come from? And what did that come from?

I’m not the only one who wants to know. That’s why we have scientists, who were the ones who figured out that we evolved in the first place. This myth is true. We were all born with a thirst for knowledge. We all want to know where we came from. But maybe even the gods don’t know.

And I adore that. Gods aren’t above us simply because they’re gods. They can be just as clueless as we are. They don’t have to know everything. And neither do we. We just have to be at peace with it. And I don’t know about you, but I am.

Read something beautiful. Read something that makes you think. Read something that makes you laugh. Read something that makes you cry.

It doesn’t have to be something like mythology. It could be a poem. It could be a novel. It could be an article. It could be a blog post. It could be a road sign. It could be anything.

Anything.

Just as long as it catches your attention. As long as it demands your attention. And holds it.

And makes you say, “Wow. That’s beautiful.”