Myth provides a people with a common language of the mind, and also entertainment and instruction and material for imagination. Without a healthy myth, we wither as social beings, we feel lost, we feel locked up in ourselves as individuals and in our fantasies. Loss of myth means the loss of conversation. It’s a sign of that, for the young especially today. You can’t have a conversation on Twitter where you’re allowed 280 characters. Social media is not really a medium for conversation. That is not conversation, that is chat. That’s a chat line, superficial. Maybe it’s setting up an arrangement for a conversation, but a conversation requires time and leisure and eye contact, even if not physical contact in our Zoom world. But it requires listening skills, and patience. And it needs self-control, so that you don’t constantly interrupt the other person and shout at them. And it also requires a sufficient amount of common myth and images, shared stories.
( Christian Life in the Light of Christian Meditation 3, Laurence Freeman )
