“We’ve been shaken out of the magnolias.”
I’ve always been particularly fond of that
line, from Watch on the Rhine. Quoted it
just the other day to an older friend.
Spoken near the very end of the film, it’s my favorite moment in one of
my favorite films.
That’s how I felt – in a positive way – after reading Richard
Brodie’s, Virus of the Mind, about six years ago. It was only today that I realized Richard
Brodie did with memes what I hope to do with helping people of all ages live as
expansively as possible – he doesn’t set himself up as the great expert, nor
does he set out the scientific whys & wherefores of memetics, but simply raised my awareness that they exist & impact my life. Profoundly.
His book made me look at everything
in a fresh new light.
How to describe a meme?
Whether working at Bryn Athyn Church School, US Healthcare, Prudential, BISYS
or with older friends, my work has always involved doing what I can to directly
influence individual & group memes.
Back then, we called it “branding.”
Looking back, it’s clear my job as a teacher, a physician liaison, a writer,
an account executive all shared a common thread – creating an image/belief in
the minds of one that would spread to many.
Aka – a meme.
A meme is defined as “an idea, behavior or style that
spreads from person to person within a culture.” The root comes from the Ancient Greek term mimeme, which implies cultural
phenomena. Although the word is often
used to describe catch-phrases, popular music & basically anything
currently trending, it goes way beyond the hottest new thing going viral on
YouTube or sweeping through the Internet & into general culture.
Realized – with a shock – that my brain was host to endless
images of others, particularly of myself, that had been wired into my mental
circuitry through childhood & early adulthood. Realizing that freed me to step back, look at
the memes that had been running countless programs that had little if any
relation to reality, and reconsider. It
gave me the space to reevaluate, reconsider & reconstitute, where necessary,
all of my fundamental beliefs. Actually,
all of them – period.
Virus of the Mind is a book for all ages. Including my older friends in Late
Adulthood. Maybe especially.
For those seeking fresh
perspectives, it can help them see how words formed our concepts which evolved
into every sort of belief & ideal, 99.99% of the time without our
awareness.
Take a moment to think about
your own birth family, the image & story that surrounds each member. In our family, the most powerful meme was
that Peter & Mim were the smart ones, while Mike & I were the social
ones. If I hadn’t read Brodie first, it’s
possible I would never have realized that Mike & I were both social AND
bright. We never excelled because we
believed the meme & never gave schoolwork our full effort. It wasn’t anyone’s fault – it was how a
variety of messages were processed by a spectrum of others. BUT, realizing that in my mid-50s helped me step
past a clearly unproductive meme AND embrace a new, positive, empowering one.
Let me repeat that – in my mid-50s. And it didn’t
really set in until a couple years ago, in my early 60s! I belief that adults of any age would get a
lot out of Virus of the Mind.
Over the years, one constant in my life is my surprise
at how often older friends, especially significantly older ones, seem more
aware of the existence of life patterns than youngsters under sixty. My bet is they would get as much from reading
Virus of the Mind in their 80s & 90s as I did in my 50s & 60s. Maybe far more than me, it might help them make
better sense of not only global & national events (particularly politics!),
but also what makes me tick.
Maybe they’ll be shaken out of their magnolias,
too. Maybe, like me, their blooms will
be better than they could dare dream.
originally posted on thegrannielistener.blogspot.com
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