Greece: Narcissis
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
We heard many, many myths and ended this block with Narcissus. He leans over the still water to see, not Mother Earth and her beauty, but himself. He cannot hear the nymph Echo who loves him. He whispers, ‘I love you,” to himself and she can only then echo back to him in his own words, her love for him. But he is deaf to hear, blind to Gaia and he wastes away. Does this ancient myth bring a very modern lesson for us? Can we look into nature and only see ourselves and the waste of our modern industries? Or can we learn that we are only part of the whole and change our ways? We never drum these ideas into the lessons, they are simply there for the children to see and hear and realize when the time is ripe.