CHARYBDE ET SCYLLA

Hello, from the memory of Ginkgo, I welcome you. A window on traditional Chinese culture. Ancient stories and their profound wisdom to offer inspiration to both children and adults. An invitation for a journey towards authenticity, goodness and tolerance. Kharib Desila, a simple myth appropriate for today. James Sayle, written in 2019. Homer's Odyssey is a common agreement. One of the greatest poems in the world, perhaps the greatest. Certainly, for Western culture, the word Odyssey has become synonymous with epic travel, and more precisely, return journey. Not only literally, but also symbolically, because Ulysses finally manages to reunite with Penelope, or his soul, or Anima. It is sometimes said that Western culture is embodied by travel or the straight path, while the East is characterized by the labyrinth or endless cycles. Whatever the truth, the Odyssey is full of characters and strange and intriguing incidents, whose one or the other can enlighten our contemporary situation and the human condition in the broad sense. One of my favorites, and surely the favorite of many young children, must be the book 12, where Ulysses and his men meet the menacing detroits between Kharib Desila. There is the passage that is in front, and that's where they have to go. But on the left side, on the cliff above, there is the monster with six heads, Scylla, and on the right side, below, there is the deadly whirlwind, Kharib Desila. This need to fix the cape on the middle, or almost, to which we are going to come, has become proverbial, because we are talking about being between Kharib and Scylla, a contrarian position to adopt. Ulysses knows, because Circe, the witch, told him, that if Scylla can attack and that with her six monstrous heads, each containing three rows of sharp teeth, he can take and kill six members of his crew, Kharib represents an even more deadly threat, because letting himself be dragged into the whirlwind that sucks the waters three times a day before throwing them away would be fatal for the whole ship and its men. Thus, Ulysses must go straight to the middle, and if he must have a margin of error, then he must stay slightly closer to the left, Scylla, than to the right, since the latter is a pure and simple destruction. How exciting it is! And this difficult situation is surely emblematic of life itself. Yin and Yang also say so. In a way, we could compare the Kharib effect of Scylla with the Yin and Yang, more familiar in Western, current anti-Western culture, of Chinese philosophy. Here we have a Circe concept so deep that trying to summarize it in a few sentences seems insulting. But essentially, each aspect of life has a Yin and Yang dimension. The Yin is often considered as the force or negative energy, feminine, softer, which counterbalances the Yang, which is the force or positive energy, masculine and harder, which interacts with the Yin to create life, movement, and all the rest. However, the fact is that too much Yin or too much Yang always leads to a correction, sometimes violent and destructive, when nature rebalances. To succeed, we must all maintain the balance between Yin and Yang, just as Ulysses must do the part of things and find a balance between Kharib and Scylla. Left brain and right. And there is something else that is very important. I do not think that Scylla at the top left of us and Kharib at the bottom right of us is accidental either. Ulysses returns to Greece through the strait between Italy and Sicily, except that Scylla would be in the north and Kharib in the south. The Greeks knew intuitively what we know scientifically, namely that Scylla is a symbol for the left side of our brain and Kharib for the right side. Thus, on the left, above us, is the place where logical thinking and calculations are made. On the right, is the place where emotions and imagination develop. We get lost in our lives by becoming too logical, too precise, too critical. Three rows of teeth reduce us in pieces and we end up fighting Frankensteinian monsters that we have gathered in the laboratory of our mind. If it is already sufficiently awful, Kharib is worse. Much worse. Because here we fall into the emotional attraction that sucks us into life. We experience it like Homer the formula of all the sea bubbling in turbulence. And we are caught in a train to which we are never strong enough to resist because we are spinning in a circle in an emotional hell. Does it ring a bell? Why, then, is it so difficult to find a right place? Ulysses was doing pretty well. He had himself and his men armed to resist Scylla. But the sudden roar and attraction of Kharib disconcentrated them. While he was fascinated by the great whirlwind, Scylla crashed and six men were taken away. Have you ever experienced that? Being perfectly logical and then an emotional fascination makes you lose everything cold. An application of this struck me when I thought about this wonderful and original film Batman starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. It is in memory. I remember this wonderful moment when the Joker replaces the boss Grissom and ironically renders a moving tribute to his former boss who he himself killed. Grissom, he says, was perhaps a gangster, a murderer, a racketeur but on the other hand, he sang with a wonderful voice. It's ironic, but there is a profound observation here. The Joker, and it's surprising for a villain, avoids what we as humans like to do, that is, to categorize people as being this or that. In short, we like to avoid all ambiguity about what we feel or think of or even about a general situation. In this context, of course, sailing and keeping the cap between Kharib and Scylla is living at the limit of ambiguity. Brexit, President Trump and the decisions. I am English. Is Brexit good or bad? Personally, I like Brexit and I always support it. But given that, I have to ask myself what is wrong with what so many of my compatriots don't like or even hate. What is on the other side? Investigating this is not necessarily to change my mind, which did not happen, but to keep me on the right track by avoiding the two words on both sides. Perhaps the contempt of the mind, Scylla, and the sectarianism of emotions, Kharib. Some of you are probably American. Is President Trump good or bad? And by the way, it is useless to say now that this binary opposition is too simplistic because it is exactly a binary opposition that most people understand and in which they engage, including the media. But whatever the way you answer this question, consider the evidence on the other side. Don't do it to change your thoughts or your passion, but at least to see why others see things so differently. Are you too logical? Too emotional? What is the balance point where you can really see clearly what is there? A balanced state of mind. This is a state of mind that the great American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald summarized in one sentence The test determining a first-order intelligence is the ability to keep two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and to maintain the ability to function. In other words, to successfully lead between Kharib and Sila. And the great English poet John Keats explained it even more in depth with his concept of negative capacity. Writing to his brothers George and Thomas in 1817, Keats said I was immediately struck by what qualities were necessary to train a fully accomplished man, especially in literature. And that Shakespeare possessed so prodigiously I mean the negative capacity, that is, when a man is able to be in the uncertain, the mystery, the doubt, without obstinately seeking the facts and the reason. Thus, in a more and more polarized world where people rush to make decisions based on slogans or jargon, the story of Sila and Kharib can remind us what it means to be a hero or a heroine in this journey of life. It is to draw a straight line between our mind and our emotions without being too distracted in one way or another. In this series, Myth, Mapping Your Way Home, James Searle comes back to the reasons why myths, almost all of them ignored today, remain crucial to understand our place in the universe if not for our own survival. James Searle was an English businessman and the creator of Motivational Maps which operates in 14 countries. He is the author of more than 40 books and is one of the leading international editors including MacMillan, Pearson and Rutledge on management, education and poetry. As a poet, he won the first prize of the 2017 Competition of the Society of Classical Poets. From the memory of Ginkgo, thank you for listening to this podcast. It was a pleasure to meet you for other stories.