My balm for despair is and has always been, since I was a bullied pubescent, to "Live Like a Narnian". To acknowledge, like Puddleglum
Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all of those things-trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones... That's why I'm going to stand by the play world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live like a Narnian even if there isn't any Narnia. (Lewis, The Silver Chair)
I vow to live like a Narnian: To not give in to despair. To stamp out the fire no matter the pain; to pull off the protective layer even when it “hurts like billy-Oh”.
To be as brave as Lucy and as valiant as Reepicheep and as loyal as Trumpkin and as thoughtful as Mrs Beaver but also as lighthearted as the Naiads and Dryads and Maenads or what’s the point?
As French notes, as Abbey points out, as Campbell lived, survival is not enough. We must have pleasure, connection, and love. We must recognize our role in the world and embrace it, take joy in it.
It is no coincidence that we turn to mythology when our very existence and understanding of the world is threatened: Mythology is how we share and continue our values throughout humanity. To paraphrase, if history is the record of human events, literature (mythology—so other arts as well) is the record of human emotion and even evolution.
So, Lewis and Tolkien, Atwood and Piercy, Walker and Baldwin, Hurston and Hughes—they have given us our baseline and our job, our role, is to continue the legacy and continue to make it relevant.
