Dreaming a New Myth

here’s a natural connection between storytellers, environmental activists and scientists. The oral traditions of all three share the belief that we ignore the world’s smallest voices at our grave peril. In every wondertale, the true wisdom comes from the little mouse on the road, or the unkempt vagabond, or even a dream. In the old stories, the heroes and heroines are the ones who stop and listen. The arrogant ones keep riding by, and miss the Earth-knowledge and soul-wisdom carried by these unlikely voices. We citizens of the 21st century are in dire need of re-educating ourselves in the art and virtue of good listening. We need to listen to the Earth, the river, the ocean, the eroding atmosphere, the animals; to our neighbours; to the unregarded and excluded voices of society. This new – yet ancient – kind of listening is what the world’s storytellers can teach us, and it may be the most profound and heroic activism of our times. ...