Set the Record Straight

For those of you who have learned everything you know about mermaids from a highly fictional Disney movie, let me set the record straight. No mermaid has ever given up her voice for the love of a prince. If you read the original story you will find that there was no "happy ever after" for the mermaid. She was abandoned by the prince and could not return to the sea unless she killed him, which she chose not to do, though her heart yearned for the sea.

But even Hans Christian Anderson got it wrong. He was sure that mer-people did not have souls and would live long lives but die in sorry. He was a devout Christian and this tainted his understanding of our kind.

We have chosen the sea, but can walk on land. We are deeply spiritual and know when to flow with the tide and when to create out own flow. We are very present in the moment, knowing that it is the experience of a life well lived that matters. Joseph Campbell was one of us...he said:

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life... I think that what we're really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive."

This is the life of a mermaid.

Lest you think that all mermaids are Buddhist, let me correct you. I am Jewish. OK, laugh about Jewish Mer-people if you will...but it does put an interesting twist on the crossing of the Reed Sea story...

To be continued.