The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon

Views and Reviews

An Introduction to Michael Meade's Why the World Doesn't End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss. Seattle, Washington: Greenfire Press, 2012

It is so easy to feel helpless in a time (now) when the world, or at least the world as we know it, seems likely to end soon, with the heavy possibility of doom and destruction hanging over us. Visions of ending are many and varied, most of them sad or frightening or disgusting. Wrongdoing without recourse seems ascendant in government and law enforcement, and protests cloud the days with uproar and the nights with tear gas. Privately, individuals flinch and cringe at the bad news while searching desperately for signs of anything good to savor as sustenance while worrying about economic collapse, health problems, and purposeless living. Eight years ago, Michael Meade was already seeing the emergence of endtime fantasies in our culture and had begun his writing about ways to live through such times as seem rampant now.

If you haven't already, take a look in this issue of The Grapevine at Charles Knott's account in Entertaining Ideas of a trip he and Jonathan made in 2012 to attend Meade's presentation at Oglethorpe University and to chauffeur Meade to another event. We brought back the review to this issue because we are all reading Michael Meade's books again, the best we can find of writing directly related to the explosion in our time of apocalyptic signs appearing even then. He was saying at the time:

The world as we know it is awash with profound problems and puzzling changes and beset with seemingly endless conflicts. It is a time of great uncertainty and surprising changes that include extreme weather patterns as well as religious and political extremists. When the typical 'holding institutions' of a culture no longer protect people and fail to hold back the collective fears of disaster, people become more vulnerable to visions of annihilation. Increasingly, it does seem that everything might come to a screaming end, that it could happen at any moment, and that it might happen from a mistake of culture or from a catastrophe of nature. (p. 9)

That catastrophe of nature has plagued us now for nearly a year, along with numerous mistakes of culture. According to Meade, When everything goes out of balance and seems about to fall apart, the issue is not the actual end of the world as much as what to do when it seems about to end. (p. 4) Meade reminds us that the end of the world never happens the way the prophets predict, and offers ample evidence from the evolution of Christian prophecies.

Meade's chief resource for the therapeutic guidance he offers comes from his vast collection and intimate knowledge of stories that humans have told here and there and everywhere since the beginning of time. One of the valuable lessons he passes along to readers about fears that the world is coming to an end is the powerful insight that root meanings of the word "end" contain such things as "remnants" and "that which is left over." He salvages for us the notion that there is always something left over, a remnant or remainder that remains; a residue that persists and offers, therefore, a way forward. (pp. 3-4)

Deep within the world and in the depths of the human soul, old and lasting ways of seeing, being, and imagining wait to be uncovered, rediscovered and learned from again. (p. 17) The ways to salvation are laid out in stories, according to Michael Meade. To be truly human is to be both psychological and mythological, for we are mythic by nature, each imbued with a living story and each tied to the enduring story of this world that ever teeters on the edge of annihilation. (p. 18)

In this book, his primary image for working with the material of stories is the loom of eternity, with an old woman in a cave alternately weaving a creative vision of life in the world and stirring a pot of soup she has concocted from the seeds of life on earth. When she leaves her loom where she has woven part of a lovely vision of life, a black dog who lives with her unravels her threads to create chaos, and the old woman returns to gather her threads and weave yet another vision. Such is the way of the world.

His conclusion: The wonder of creation is that it continues to create; it is the ongoing story that starts over again each time it reaches the End. (p. 20) And he makes an astonishingly fresh though ancient declaration that the world cannot end unless it runs out of stories.

Moreover, and this is important: Meade offers his insight that each individual soul has a significant part to play in the survival of world and culture. We don't have to be Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg or President Jimmy Carter, whose lives exemplify how much a person can offer to the world's wellbeing. Each individual who lives a full life's potential adds significantly to the sum of soul linking us to eternity. Thus, he says, We redeem ourselves and help redeem the world a little through a conscious and continuous effort to find and live the inner dream and seeded story of our lives. (p. 67)

His references to soul are many, and here is a succinct definition of the elusive concept: Soul is the secret glue of the world and the connecting agent of existence. Soul is found where life deepens us, where meaning calls to us, where trouble deters us, wherever and however we slow down in the midst of the rushing and racing at the surface level of life. He insists, Amidst the modern fascination with newness and things that move faster and faster, there is something older and wiser trying to catch up with us. Only if we can manage to stop in time and 'slow downwards' can the old soul within us catch up and help find a way through the growing darkness. (p. 68)

His challenge to readers is this: When the end has come, either a person can say: I lived the life I was given, gave the gifts that were mine to give, and followed where the thread of soul led me; or else: I failed to awaken to the spark of life that was originally given to me and followed instead a map made by others. (p. 102)

Michael Meade's teaching contains the gift of stories and images, threads of ancient wisdom that can help each of us weave creatively in troubled times and simultaneously add our soulful presence to the total presence of soul at work and play in the world, for the sake of survival and for the joy of living fully all that we are and can be in this world, in this lifetime.

Blurbs on the book include this one from Alice Walker: Michael Meade is magic. Unlike anyone else one is likely to encounter, Michael Meade is one of the greatest living teachers of our time.

Coleman Barks says, Michael Meade is a master-storyteller and story-teacher of the soul's unfolding. He addresses the mess we're in and helps us each discover the unique threads, the poetic DNA we must live out. As interpreter and mythic guide, he is the best there is.

And from Robert Bly: 'Our job isn't to comprehend everything, but to learn which story we are in.' So advises Michael Meade in this thoughtful and subtle book, abundant with stories and ideas about this world and the otherworld. A rich, rewarding, and knowing book.

To get an up to the minute look at the richness of his work, go to his affiliate website at MOSAIC VOICES