Mysticism in ‘The Overstory’
Olivia is a party girl who doesn’t care about much. She prides herself on being cold and callous. She is studying actuarial science, a field she chose because the idea of a career “calculating the cash value of death” appealed to her. But now she has lost interest and is sleepwalking through her final semester of college.
Then she has a near-death experience. Revived after more than a minute with no heartbeat, she is not the same person. Filled with a mixture of confusion and a sense of profound meaning, she is compelled by invisible but insistent “presences” to abandon everything and drive west. Finding herself on Johnny Appleseed’s path, she reflects on his story:
“She always thought he was just a myth. She must still discover that myths are basic truths twisted into mnemonics, instructions posted from the past, memories waiting to become predictions.”
