Happy Dance Week addition to I’m back
I’ve continued to read the Cunning Folk And Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions In Early Modern British Witchcraft And Magic. It’s not a quick read, but very interesting. The author compares the contemporary accounts of the folk healers (cunningmen and women) and accounts of witches from the witch trials. There are so many similarities between the two groups that it’s pretty clear that basically the difference was all in the person called him or herself (or the observer called them). I guess whether you ended up being called in front of the judge depended upon how well you got along with your neighbors. The judges were convinced that any spirits who helped them heal or find lost items were demonic, the country folk seemed to usually think that they were from faerie- but the denizens of faerie also included dead people. It was all very nebulous. I haven’t yet gotten to the part where the author compares the practices according to the accounts to what modern people report about their totems and spirit guides, but I’m sure looking forward to it.
I was amazed at all the channels they had at the hospital, but while I caught a few old episodes of Golden Girls and MASH which was fun, but other than that I just wasn’t really caught by any of the many offerings. Part of my disinterest probably arose from not wearing my contacts for the first half of my time there (I was too dehydrated to dare put them in. The last thing I needed was a scratched cornea on top of everything else.) When Trish came up she’d described to me the show The Alaska Experiment where they dump three batches of fools in Alaska to try to make it on their own and a film crew (who presumably have some sort of good shelter and food and means of escape) so they could film them making mistakes and all the rest of us can convince ourselves that we’d do so much better! I did find an episode Saturday morning, and got to see it, and she’s right. It’s something like watching a train wreck- except that you are sure that every bad thing that happens to them is because of their own stupidity and thus well deserved. She was right- it was fun.
Here’s the holidays for this week (in an attempt to return to normalcy).
It’s also Volunteer Week which I’m relating to more since people are coming to help me.
http://www.nationaldanceweek.org/
26 Richter Scale Day, Tai Chi and Qigong Day, and Rebuilding Day, Pretzel Day
27 Rural Life Sunday, Soil Stewardship Sunday, Prime Rib Day
28 Cubicle Day, Bulldogs are Beautiful Day, Blueberry Pie Day
29 Dance Day, Sense of Smell Day, Hairball Awareness Day, Shrimp Scampi Day
30 Walpergis/ Beltane Night, Oatmeal Cookie Day
I hope to report again in a few days even more impressive improvements.
Tchipakkan
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” Albert Einstein
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