From the Introduction

The labyrinth is what Gregory Bateson refers to as a metapattern. There is the labyrinth of myth made famous by the story of Ariadne, with whom Matthews engages in imaginary conversations sprinkled throughout the book, and Theseus, and the Minotaur. There are real life labyrinths that can be found throughout the world, open to the public, and Matthews is an experienced labyrinth walker who readily relates the benefits and joys of that experience. And there are also many labyrinthine structures, for example in the ways that plants grow, or in the shape of the small intestine or the circulatory system, the internal structure of the ear, or the winding streets of many cities and towns. The logic of the labyrinth is the logic of the fractal geometry, including the Peano curve, aka the space-filling curve. The pattern also applies to the oral tradition, its multiformity, variability, and homeostatic qualities, which Matthews explains is very much characteristic of the myths surrounding the Minotaur, Theseus, and Ariadne. As a structure that straddles the distinction between the linear and the nonlinear, the labyrinth also informs the path that Ariadne Then and Now follows, a winding stroll through mind and memory, wandering but never, ever lost.

More than anything else, the labyrinth is the metaphor and metapattern for life, for the kind of journey characteristic of human life. Not a straight line from beginning to middle to end, but a wandering along mysterious pathways, never knowing quite where we are or when we will arrive at our destination, or what awaits us along the way. As a memoir, and especially as the third edition of a memoir, Carol Matthews provides a profound reflection on life, and especially on end of life. Death is a subject that we go to great lengths to avoid in contemporary western culture, and yet it is an eventuality that we all must face, for ourselves, for those close to our hearts, and for the strangers in our midst and in our media environment who we become connected to, and who we encounter with empathy. The denial of death that so dominates contemporary life leaves us lost in the labyrinth, whereas the only way out, as Corey Anton makes clear, is through death acceptance. Carol Matthews shows great courage in Ariadne Then and Now, in facing her Minotaur, and coming to terms with the beast. In doing so, she reminds us that the interconnectedness of the social and biological worlds are labyrinths too, and that the thread that we need to follow, to set ourselves free, is that of ecology, of ecological thinking, of relations and relationships.

Simply put, Ariadne Then and Now, is a journey well worth taking, one that can help us along and help us get along, as we travel along the meandering routes, crisscrossing pathways, and spiraling circuits that we encounter in the living of our lives.

—Lance Strate, Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University, President of the Institute of General Semantics, and author of 8 books, including 2 poetry collections, Diatribal Writes of Passage in a World of Wintertextuality; and Thunder at Darwin Station (published by NeoPoiesis Press), as well as the award-winning work, Media Ecology: An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition.

Reviews

In Ariadne Then and Now, Carol Matthews walks her readers through a profound reflection on life and death; exploring the paradoxes, the mysteries and the challenges that we encounter when we live fully, love deeply and grieve fiercely.

Engaging the ancient wisdom of the labyrinth as a lens into her relationships with friends and family, into her own encounters with life-threatening illness, the losses associated with aging, and her lived experiences of deep grief after the death of her husband Mike, Carol brilliantly weaves together the personal and the universal. She helps us to see the myriad of ways in which our encounters with love and loss are woven together as threads of darkness and light throughout the tapestry of our lives; part of our experience as human beings who are always in relationship with everything around us; the earth/the natural world, the animal world, the social world and the timeless world beyond where “everything passes, yet nothing vanishes … where the vast universes sparkle with our presence”.

Her writing is courageous, authentic and bold, yet also endearingly humble. She asks questions without laying claim to black and white answers. Her wonderings and her meanderings, illuminated by beautiful descriptions of the many different labyrinths she has walked, offer a path to embracing paradox, sitting more comfortably with mystery, and reaching out for hope, that “dazzling light that encompasses all the dimensions and lasts through each dark night in an endless spiral”.

Death, dying, loss and grief; these are the great equalizers of all humanity. Regardless of who we are, how healthy we aspire to be, how much we have succeeded and accomplished, we will all be impacted by the loss of loved ones and of course, we will all face our own death someday. This is a truth that Carol faces head-on both with courage and with grace. As a grief counsellor for over 25 years and as the Executive Director of Lumara, a non-profit organization that supports thousands of people coping with serious illness, grief each year, I believe this book has much to offer anyone on a search for hope and meaning in their dark hours, for anyone who wants to engage in a deeper understanding of the mysteries of life and death.

Whether you are a health-care provider exhausted by the arduous work of supporting dying patients and grieving families during the pandemic, a person facing the uncertainty of your own serious illness diagnosis or someone grieving the death of a loved one, I believe that joining Carol Matthews on her labyrinth journeys in Ariadne Then and Now will encourage, strengthen and remind you that transformation is always possible and that at “the darkest moments, the light can still return.”

 —Dr. Heather Mohan, PhD, RCC, MTA, Executive Director, Lumara Grief and Bereavement Care Society