Ambition and Bliss

Art by Alan Syliboy

The Micmac story Caught By a Hair-String can be fruitfully examined in light of the psychological and anthropological viewpoints, even by a layperson in these fields. This tale sheds light on healthy psychological states, something sorely lacking in many of the protagonists of more famous myths and epics. 

One of the most interesting aspects of Caught By a Hair-String is that the Lazy and Unattractive-Looking Husband refuses the leadership of the tribe when offered it by his brother-in-law. That is shocking in light of how many other myths proceed to depict similar situations. If this story were Greek, for instance, it is easy to imagine that the Lazy and Unattractive-Looking Husband surely would have already seized political power as he increased in knowledge and skill prior to the chief’s death. His loyalty to his brother-in-law would most likely not have been as strong as his need for glory and fame. 

Psychologically, this speaks to human nature. The fact that despite Lazy’s capabilities he stays loyal to the Chief’s Son speaks volumes about his psychological state. He has reached a healthy state of balance between his ambition to progress (exemplified by his desire to learn all that the Chief’s Son knows) and his familial and tribal obligations. Lazy has also overcome any need to prove himself. The remarkable thing about this is that after reaching this point, he does not attempt to overstep his bounds. He does not even countenance the idea of taking over the leadership of the tribe. He allows his love for The Chief’s Son to hold sway over his decision. The freely given offer to assume leadership of the tribe is not even a momentary temptation for Lazy. 

The power dynamics of this tale have a lot to teach us in our modern society. Lazy learns so much from his brother-in-law, and progresses so far from the young man we meet in the opening of the story, that upon first reading, I felt that the story was going to end with Lazy becoming the new Chief. I surmise this was my thought process because of the way in which modern Americans are encouraged to perceive power. The “best” person is the person who should get the job. Lazy has eclipsed The Chief’s Son, so surely Lazy should be the new Chief. But where is the end of ambition? In our age of economic expansion, where companies continually consolidate and move into new areas, it makes perfect sense that the next step that Lazy would take would be to consolidate power, but because of his psychological health, he does not even perceive this offer as a temptation. This is the opposite of the Greek atē. 

Another beautiful thing we can take today from this myth is the way Lazy takes advantage of his opportunities. We live in a day and age of unprecedented access to learning and education. The gradual expansion of the internet over the last two decades continues to roll on and penetrates more and more of the world. Now teenagers carry with them access to the knowledge of the world around with them in their pockets.  But having the potential to use one’s opportunities is not the same thing as actually using them. As Joseph Campbell (2011) said, 

Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else (p.113).

Lazy fully takes full advantage of having The Chief’s Son as his brother-in-law, and learns so many skills and powers that he eventually eclipses his brother-in-law. Lazy follows his bliss without any psychological hang-ups getting in the way. His original station in life was so lowly that his only name (which follows him throughout his entire life) is Lazy and Unattractive-Looking! Of course, later on after he “catches” the shy daughter of the elderly couple with the enchanted hair-string, “husband” is added to his designation. 

This background would seem like a lot to overcome, and Lazy does it by following his bliss. Following your bliss in simplest terms is following the path of your destiny, and one cannot follow the path if one never gets on, or gets on but sits down to rest and never gets up again, or if one wanders off the path for any reason. We find the path by taking advantage of the opportunities that present themselves to us.

The myth of Caught By a Hair-String can also be understood anthropologically. Claude Levi-Strauss (1963) said that, "Myth is language, functioning on an especially high level where meaning succeeds practically at 'taking off' from the linguistic ground on which it keeps rolling." This being true, what does the story of Caught By a Hair-String communicate to us about the people called the Micmac?

The most shocking thing about reading Caught By a Hair-String on first approaching the story is the seeming lack of female agency exhibiting by the shy daughters who marry Lazy and The Chief’s Son. Upon further investigation, however, the hair-string can be seen as a symbol of advantage in attracting a mate, and not as a form of coercion. One cultural ideal inherent in this story and referenced above, is the idea of using the advantages that come to you. When Lazy meets The Old Woman who offers him a chance to become a husband to one of the shy maidens, she asks him if his brag about being able to get one of the shay daughters to marry him has any truth to it. Does he really want to marry and have children? Since he is sincere in his wish, she gives him the magic hair-string. Using this device allows him to be in a position to meet with his future wife alone and gain her favor as well as the favor of her elderly parents. 

Employing the magic hair-string, Lazy and his shy wife are able to be married and join fully the community of adults. This is much like today, where any worthy advantage should be pursued, as long as it is not at someone else’s expense. If one is athletic, they person could use that advantage to woo a spouse. If one is musically gifted, one can use that to win the heart of another. If one is intellectually blessed, one can use that cognitive power to court their love. I belief this is what the myth is getting at, and furthermore, the fact that in the story The Old Woman is helping the young man to win the heart of someone who would typically be outside the realm of marriage and courtship due to her living conditions and upbringing, shows that the actions of Lazy are sanctioned by the community and were not about violating the rights of others. Lazy is empowered by the community represented by The Old Woman. Cultural Empowerment refers to enabling the underprivileged to become more (Compton & Hoffman, 2013, p.272).

The ways in which The Chief’s Son teaches Lazy explain the way that the Micmac had to rely on each other in order to survive. Lazy is only able to woo and marry the younger shy daughter because of the help of The Old Woman. Lazy only gains greater skills and power because he became the brother-in-law of the Chief’s Son, which only occurred because he shared the secret of the hair-string, which he only knew because The Old Woman shared it with him. The Chief’s Son only gets to ascend to the station of Chief because Lazy refuses to take the position form his friend and brother-in-law. And it goes on and on like that forever. The tale of Caught By a Hair-String teaches and enforces the idea that we all need each other, and we all have a part to play. In some ways this could be perceived as social control of the populace, but in the case of  Lazy, while he has seemed throughout the course of the story to accept more and more power and an increase in his skills, he has never come across as ambitious for ambition’s sake. This is shown clearly in the complete lack of rebellion he shows. He focuses on his duties, and does not simply demand his rights, as many young people insist on (Cialdini, 2009).

Lazy’s choice to remain as the friend and brother-in-law of the new Chief, rather than to ascend to the leadership of his people (which the teachings of the Chief’s Son had enabled him to be prepared to become) reinforces the social ties those ancient societies like the Micmac as well as our modern societies with their almost total separation into specializations, depend on. Without this cooperation, society as we know it could not function. Whether that is a good or bad thing is a topic for another paper, but what is obviously true is the way in which smaller, less mechanized cultures still function very similarly to our own. Lazy’s does not transverse the bounds of his station, but only progresses inside of it until he is fit to seize the reins of leadership. He decides not to continue and cross the boundary that would have him replace his best friend and brother. That is an example to all of us that our task is to be the best we can be in our own sphere, and certainly Lazy developed far past what his name claims that he is, yet he does not try to expand and take over everything, like many corporations of today do. He is much more like the filmmaker that just keeps cranking out small independent films year after year, than he is the starry-eyed young director who lets Hollywood seduce her away from pursuing making personal, pure cinema in order to make big dumb films for the studios. 

The tale of Caught By a Hair-String has many responses psychologically, and teaches us much of the way Micmac society and culture was structured. By showing us a healthy mix of ambition along with familial and tribal loyalty, this tale teaches us about a different culture and reveals to us how to strike a similar balance in our own lives.