How to Be Eloquent

One of the challenges for those of us who came from, well, not such great families is that our role models and first teachers were, to some extent, damaged. Many people adopt the healthy strategy of vowing to be everything their mothers or fathers were or were not. For example, if you had a narcissistic mother, you might be bound and determined to focus on other people's needs. It might be a conscious decision you made as a young person or a behavioral pattern that's more habitual and unconscious. That would be a really good decision, right? Except in this example you run the risk of not developing a healthy narcissism---that is, the ability to recognize the importance of your own needs as well. To define ourselves in relation to our first teachers can limit our own individual development.

I was thinking about this after I came across a lovely quote from Joseph Campbell:

"It's a good thing to hang on to the myth that was put in when you were a child because it is there whether you want it there or not. What you have to do is translate that myth into eloquence, not just into the literacy. You have to learn to hear its song."