Narcissus and Echo

You all know the story. Narcissus was the son of the river god Cephisus. He ran in the foothills and forests of Greece. He joined with the fawns and dryads in the woodland sports as they ran the streams and climbed the mountains.  He was incredibly handsome, so handsome indeed that the beautiful nymph Echo followed his every step, pursuing his love.

One day after an exceptionally good hunt, Narcissus was running through the woods and came upon a calm, clear pool carved out in the bend of a river. Exhausted and fatigued he stooped down to take a drink and saw his own image in the water. Struck by the beauty of the reflection, Narcissus stood by the fountain’s edge gazing with admiration at his own beautiful form. He said to himself “Ah – neither Bacchus nor Apollo themselves surpassed such allure as mine.”

With infatuation Narcissus reached out to embrace his own reflec­tion. He could not tear himself away. He lost all thought of food or rest. He just stayed by the river’s edge, day after day, hovering over the pool, gazing at his own image.

As time went by, the fire he cherished consumed him more and more. He lost his color, he lost his vigor, he lost his strength, and until one day in one final attempt to embrace his own fading beauty, Narcissus leaned over the edge of the pool, fell in, and drowned.

In love with himself, Narcissus died, leaving nothing but the faint hint of Echo’s voice in a distant valley as she mourns the loss of such wasted beauty.

Perhaps we should remember the story of Narcissus. As we try to make sense out of the clamor of competing ideas and political agendas, do we find ourselves satisfied with the sound of our own “beautiful” voice or do we hear a faint echo mourning the loss of things that we know to be pure and true, honest and good? As we stand at the edge of the pool of competing worldviews do we find ourselves staring lovingly at our own image, i.e., our own opinions, tastes, preferences and desires, or do we look deeper, beyond our image, as if “seeing in a glass darkly” seeking to someday “know even as we are known?”

Maybe it would serve us all well to take a humble look in the mirror as a reminder that it isn’t arrogant, after all, to fall in love with something bigger than oneself.

–Excerpt from The Wrong Side of the Door: Why Ideas Matter by Everett Piper, Ph.D.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.