From ancient times, myths and fairy tales have contained more spiritual truth in one telling than we can even process, which is why the soul keeps asking to have them told once again. ~-From the essay “Mythical Woman” in Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Romancing the Ordinary-~
The past week has seen a lot of discussion about romantic movies here in the Marriage Blog. It all started when Dale shared some of her picks for romantic favorites, then continued with a few more in part two. Next it was my turn to chime in with a list of 52 romantic movies you either love or hate.
Two Essays
After I posted my article, I read the following essays in Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Romancing the Ordinary: A Year of Simple Splendor: “Mythical Woman” and “The One Story Worth Telling.”
It just so happened that I read them, as they’re in the September section of her book, and since it’s September…well, there they were. It wasn’t like I set out to find them, but when I did I had to chuckle.
Some readers commented on both Dale’s blog and my own about movies that appealed to them that we had mentioned –or one’s that held no appeal at all.
I’ve always wondered what makes a movie appeal to one person but not to another. Obvious things might affect it. You don’t like one of the actors. Maybe you found the whole cast’s overall acting weak. Perhaps the time period doesn’t do it for you. Maybe it’s a musical and you don’t like those. Maybe it’s got subtitles. Maybe you’re PMSing and weren’t in the mood for a romantic storyline. Or maybe you didn’t buy the storyline at all.
The Personal Love Myth
Ah, the storyline.
Sure, all those other factors might influence why you did or did not like a movie. But once I read Sarah Ban Breathnach’s essays I understood why some people love certain movies, have them in their collections, and watch them again and again. It’s due to something she called a personal myth.
The Irish poet William Butler Yeats believed that there was only one romance: the soul’s. And the soul’s romance is our personal myth. ~-From “The One Story Worth Telling” in Romancing the Ordinary-~
I like to think of it as a personal love myth.
Types of Personal Love Myths
The movies that call to my soul are the ones where love comes first. Where love is the most important thing. Nothing else –not family, not circumstances, nothing— matters more to the lovers than each other. They’ll risk anything and everything to be together, because being together is the most important thing.
But there are others:
1. Love at first sight.
2. Love conquers all.
3. Do anything in the name of love.
4. Love sacrificed in the name of duty.
There are probably even more. These were just some of the personal love myths that came to my mind. Feel free to share any that come to yours. As well as what your personal love myth is if you happen to know it.
Which, by the way, is okay if you don’t. I just realized mine a couple days ago when I read those two essays. And as Sarah Ban Breathnach put it: “If you’re not consciously aware of your personal myth, take heart. The great Swiss psychologist Carl Jung didn’t begin to explore his ‘personal myth’ until he was eighty-three.”
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