FLIRTING WITH A FAIRYTALE

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it...

Diya Mathur, the heroine of my new romance, Bootie and the Beast, is a die-hard believer of all things whimsical. She smooches frogs, rescues dudes in distress, bawls her eyes out as often as she gets a Swedish massage and, above all, dreams up wishes every day and wishes her dreams come true. And if desperate enough, she invokes the help of Lord Vishnu or Allah or Buddha...depending on which part of the world she is in or which side of the family she feels "good feels" for at the time...to fulfill her deepest desires.

Which brings us to the topic of this post: WISHES. And why we must be cautious of what we wish for.

So, what is a wish?

1. Definition of wish (v)

   Bing Dictionary
   • wish
   • [ wish ]
   1. have strong desire: to have a strong feeling of wanting something to happen or wanting to have something
   2. want something: to want something or want to do something
   3. express desire: to express or feel a desire that something is true or will come to pass
   synonyms: desire · aspiration · hope · yearning · longing · craving · fancy · inclination

Wishing is one of the most basic traits of being human. Without wishing, there is no progress, no innovation, no evolution. Without the desire for something, we will not strive and therefore not achieve that something, however small or large, benign or extraordinary. Could be why most of our cultures and societies around the world have myths and folktales dealing with wish fulfillment. Even ethical or moral tales are nothing but the desire, the wish of a human being to be good.

Let's innumerate a few:

1. Kissing a frog to turn him into a prince.

2. Throwing coins in fountains or wishing wells.

3. Wishing on a falling star or a fallen eyelash.

4. Prayers are nothing but wishes...for safety, for sustenance, for a happy life.

5. Wishing on Aladin's lamp or a genie's lamp.

6. Blowing candles from birthday cakes.

7. Loves me/loves me not flowers.

8. Voodoo

I'm sure there are lots more. Do write down if you know any interesting ones in the comments.

Anyway, there are a hundred ways to wish and while most fulfilled wishes bring us untold joy, there will be times when we wonder why in hell did we ever wish for that! 

Which brings us to me and my last week's wish. I am reading tomorrow at Lady Jane's Salon in NYC. My first reading ever and I am suitably frazzled about it. I have been practicing aloud and even taped myself. OH wow. I sound like Minnie Mouse. I squeaked and...don't ask. Just don't. So, I wished I'd get a cold...a small one and hopefully my voice would get a bit huskier and sound nice and sexy at the reading. Boy. Has my wish backfired, People. I got said cold and now I can't hear myself talk, much less gauge whether I sound sexy or not. Did I mention my migraine?

Ah. We humans get ourselves into unnecessary pickles, don't we?

THE MYTH of INVINCIBILITY.

If not immortality, we mortals are obsessed with invincibility. We want no weapon to harm us, no disease to kill us, no misfortune to befall us. If we can't live forever, then we want the next best thing - to live a healthy and prosperous life into an old close-to-forever age.

It's a great aspiration. Something to strive for certainly, this state of invincibility, of being super protected. But, the thing is that the very nature of being mortal means that we can never achieve that goal. We forget that even Superman had Kryptonite to deal with.

Our ancestors did warn us...

What is myth? 

[ mith ]

1. ancient story: a traditional story about heroes or supernatural beings, often attempting to explain the origins of natural phenomena or aspects of human behavior.

Achilles and his pitiful Greek heel: 

The son of a mortal Peleus and the immortal Nereid Thetis, Achilles was the un-defeatable warrior-hero of the Trojan War (or most of it.) It is said that upon his birth, his mother held baby Achilles by his right heel and dipped him in the River Styx to make his body invincible. The catch? Where she caught him - his right heel remained vulnerable causing his fall, and thus the legend of Achilles' Heel was born.

Duryodhana and his vulnerable Indian groin: 

His name itself means "One who can't be defeated" or "great fighter," was the son on of the blind King Dhritarashtra and Queen Gandhari. Gandhari chose to blind-fold herself forever the day she married the blind king because she wished to "see" the world just as her husband did. That act of immense courage (ahem, crack-pot stupidity IMO) pleased the Gods and they granted her a powerful boon. Just before the terrible Mahabharata War began (or during it, I forget) she asked her oldest son, Duryodhana, to come to her unclothed. She untied her blindfold and only for a second opened her eyes (the ones with the power) to sweep them over her son, use the boon to make him invincible. Duryodhana did not strip naked, thinking to cover his groin from his mother (a gentlemen, to be sure) and thus that became the only part of him that remained vulnerable causing his enemy to strike him dead there.

In both Achilles and Duryodhana's cases, the protector strives to protect but fate (nature, understanding, limitations) gets in the way.

What is the lesson we're supposed to learn from these myths? Should we not strive at all as the outcome of our actions may not be in our hands? Can we not survive without might and power? Is vulnerability such a bad thing? Is being human not in our best interests?

(pic source: google search images)

BIRTH: THE AGE OF MYTH

Birth of a Hero

Carrying that theme "the more things seem different, the more they are the same" I bring you three different myths of heroes from three different ancient civilizations from three vastly different ages but with bafflingly similar birth stories. These three stories propagate the thesis that all things come from THE ONE, in my humble understanding of such things. Even though each legend is unique, fitting comfortably into its own sphere of culture and mythical grouping, certain details are strong and remain constant in all three civilizations. I wonder what was so important about these unanimous details that would not let the three cultures separated by time, geography and philosophy tamper with them, even while  utterly changing the trappings surrounding the details.

The Common Theme: The newborn hero is the young sun rising from the waters, first confronted by lowering clouds, but finally triumphing over all obstacles.

SARGON

Probably the oldest transmitted hero myth in our possession is derived from the period of the foundation of Babylonia (about 2800 B.C.) and concerns the birth history of its founder, Sargon the First.

Sargon, the mighty king, King of Agade, am I. My mother was a vestal, my father I knew not, while my father's brother dwelt in the mountains. In my city Azuripani, which is situated on the bank of the Euphrates, my mother, the vestal, bore me. In a hidden place she brought me forth. She laid me in a vessel made of reeds, closed my door with pitch, and dropped me down into the river, which did not drown me. The river carried me to Akki, the water carrier. Akki the water carrier lifted me up in the kindness of his heart, Akki the water carrier raised me as his own son, Akki the water carrier made of me his gardener. In my work as a gardener I was beloved by Ishtar, I became the king, and for forty-five years I held kingly sway.

MOSES

The biblical birth history of Moses, which is told in the second chapter of Exodus, presents the greatest similarity to the Sargon legend, even an almost literal correspondence of individual traits. Already the first chapter (22) relates that Pharaoh commanded his people to throw into the river all sons that were born to Hebrews, while the daughters were permitted to live; the reason for this order is given as fear of the over-fertility of the Israelites. 

The second chapter:

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

KARNA

A close relationship with the Sargon legend is also shown in certain features of the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata, in its account of the birth of the legendary hero Karna.

The princess Pritha, also known as Kunti, bore as a virgin the boy Karna, whose father was the sun-god Surya. The young Karna was born with golden ear ornaments of his father and with an unbreakable coat of mail. The mother in her distress concealed and abandoned the boy. 

"Then my nurse and I made a large basket of rushes, placed a lid thereon, and lined it with wax; into this basket I laid the boy and carried him down to the river."

Floating on the waves, the basket reaches the river Ganges and travels as far as the city of Campa. 

"There was passing along the bank of the river, the charioteer, the noble friend of Dhritarashtra, and with him was Radha, his beautiful and pious spouse. She was wrapt in deep sorrow, because no son had been given to her. On the river she saw the basket, which the waves carried close to her on the shore; she showed it to Adhirath, who went and drew it forth from the waves." 

The two take care of the boy and raise him as their own child.

What interests me is that Karna and Sargon were born as princes/demigods and raised as commoners then had to fight their way up to king-hood again, whereas Moses experiences the opposite phenomenon. Would that be a cultural more? And if so, for what? 

(source material and some paraphrasing from Sacred Texts.)