The myth is the killer

Dear Narwals,

When I say that unicorns killed narwhals, I do by no means intend to instill the absoluetly epic picture of such a battle in your imagination. I do however intend to make myself clear about the very real dangers of false beliefs.

The unicorn has exerced its magic over humans for long enough to gain relevance in various domains of life. In fact, the creature´s existence and unique set of powers has not only had relevance in matters of culture and collective psyche, but as stated in various documents, was a secret ingredient to occult, alchemy and even medicine.

During the long extinct age of mouth to ear tales and enthousiastic pseudo-scientifics, long before the birth of today´s strict definition of proof, unicorns were real... at least to the believer. The cynic in me burns to shout out : "Where there is naivity, there can thrive deceit!". However you, dear reader will have understood by now : Where there is belief, there is a market for fake unicorn horns.

There was a time indeed, when money could buy a long, pale and knotted horn able to scare of spiders and cure diseases. Your snort would be shared,  by at least the genious Neil Stephenson (for fellow fans of Quicksilver), but I would like you to hold it back just for a second.

So, dark ages have been gone since a long time, the centuries brought upon humanity light an reason, mythical creatures have found their well earned rest... have I left out any other lie?
Well, long story short, the myth is as present in our market as ever, and it may even seem as if, by some turn of genius, the unicorn survived to all our revolutions under a different name.

You and I know, of course, the deceit sold to us in beautiful, shiny pots. We know the words, like magic spells, full of natural promises of health, always new and just for you and me and no one else.

Where do you hide, killer?

How could anyone get fooled by todays modern advertisement techniques? We do, at last, have the means to find and share valuable info and can even get a closer look at its source.

Do you know the answer? I mean the real one, the one that hits the core of the problem.
I am not referring to manipulation of the subconscious or to the social pressure. I am speaking about the heart of the creature we have so often called myth, corporate strategy, unicorn : the act of belief as a statement of hope.

How do you feel when a luxury brand offers you the opinion of a gorgeous, successful person on the ability of their product to erase, to perfect?.. To take the underlying worries off your shoulders and the fears out of your mind? You have been offered the easiest way out, or around, other people´s tragic destiny... be it the age spot on the forehead.

Do you care, at this point, if the freckle (no one else minds) will wanish forever, is it enough to believe in its evasion and therewith in the destruction of the proof of aging, of getting soon unable to bear children, of havin to leave the workplace, of becoming irrelevant in the eyes of society...

No one else sees all that in a brown spot on your skin, and they will not fear for your well being once having come close enough to actually notice it. That is why you will get disappointed if you expect to get surprised by a set of anti-aging products for your birthday. It is a warning sign to you only, but you are not alone making such associations, just look at the numbers.

If you are too young to worry about the process of aging, you will probably rememnber the familiar feeling of creeping panic whenever the word cellulite comes into earshot. You might be a teenager still, but even you have been informed that this "condition" is a mere foreshadow of obesity, loss of attractivity, abandonment and impending sentence of lifelong loneliness... which is particularily menacing to you, having statistically a very good life expectation.

Now, you are allowed to smirk, dear Narwal, because everybody knows how silly that all is, compared to real problems. Well, is it?

You have without any doubt heard and read about psychological and physical disorders caused by issues of body-image. It is true that one thinks more often of life threatening condtions (like eating disorders), but never about silly worries oncerning wrinkles!

Again : really? Have you already forgotten the price you were willing to pay for the serum last month? What about the painful stinge in your stomach when not fitting in old clothes? And where have you left your memories of the way you felt the last time you peeked into a magazine or compared yourself to others in any other way?

Real harm has been done, only it´s more convenient to wait until the final collapsing of psyche and body to take matters into hand.

I implore you all to address the problem as early as possible : today. You have named your enemy already, what is left to do is the battle. Kill the killer. Get out of the race for perfection, spoiler alert everyone, no one can catch it, get it, be it, it doesn´t exist, it´s an unicorn. Instead, in midst of the noise of panicked footsteps, look into the ocean and see the narwhal. It is all right there, mystery, grace, the one horn that shot through your heart like a cupid´s arrow.

The beautiful (and please notice that I mean real, profound beauty) is in front of you, in the mirror : it is you as you are right now. If you feel like you don´t have it, or at least not in your grip, it is because you did catch the creature. Now is the time to set for the hunt... but mind you, we do not look for the unicorn here, we are not going to rip out its knotted weapon to sell for a gold price. We are not hunting to make it ours, emprison it or let it become our strophy. The magic dies with the creature.

Instead, once found in our ocean, we shall befriend our narwhal, and learn. Imitate its grace and get an understanding of its joyfullness. Catch the essence of the narwhal and let the unicorn die at last, it has haunted us long enough.

Dive deep my friends,
Your Old Narwal

P. S. : Do you know what your inner narwhal has in common with all of his ocean-cousins out there? Its worst fate is imprisonment. Please boycott amusement parks which host sea mammals.