Don't Confuse Me With Facts

We all have a way of believing "Old Wives' Tales." They are part of our cultural stories. We believe them even when we know that they may not be true. Sadly it isn't just cultural things. I am currently reading An Instance of the Fingerpost which takes place in 1600s England. Part of what I have already read has some discussions and arguments about the human body, health, and healing.

For example, the "modern" thinker stands against some of the folk remedies that doctors prescribed- but also believed that the stars and astrology could impact health. On the other side the old-timer who puts noxious stuff on his eyes to "cure" them thinks astrology is bunk. So in the end some kinds of cultural baggage informs many things we believe.

One I remember is the old saw that you don't go swimming for an hour after eating. We would sit along the beach waiting for that hour to be up. It made sense, of course, that the body needed everything to digest the food in the stomach.

What to my surprise then about 20 years ago when a friend and trained lifeguard/water safety instructor told me that this was no longer considered an issue. I was upset about all the hours wasted out of the water.

There are of course many of these "old wives' tales".

By the way, what and where did this phrase come from? Ultimately, to no surprise, from the Bible.
Here from Wikipedia:

An old wives' tale (often mispronounced as old wise tale) is a type of urban legend, similar to a proverb, which is generally passed down by old wives to a younger generation. Such 'tales' usually consist of superstition, folklore or unverified claims with exaggerated and/or untrue details. Today old wives' tales are still common among children in school playgrounds. Old wives' tales often concern pregnancy, puberty and nutrition.

In this context, the word wife means woman rather than married woman. This usage stems from Old English wif (woman) and is akin to the German weib, also meaning woman. This sense of the word is still used in Modern English in constructions such as midwife and fishwife.

Most old wives' tales are false and are used to discourage unwanted behavior, usually in children. Among the few tales with grains of truth, the veracity is likely coincidental.

The concept of old wives' tales is ancient. In the 1st Century, the apostle Paul wrote to his young protege Timothy, "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness" (I Timothy 4:7).

Anyway, this is just a long introduction to a link from The Best Article Every Day website where they recently debunked 10 Old Wives' Tales.

But I'm not sure they are right that the full moon doesn't cause more problems. Some old wives' tales must be based on something from anecdotal evidence. (Or do I just want an excuse for my weird behavior every 28 days?)

Oh, and note their support for debunking the swimming tale is from the Mayo Clinic. Must be right!

Thunder Beings
Reading Black Elk Speaks this past week, I came across his use of the image of "Thunder Beings." These are the mythical beings of the West where the thunderstorms come from. They are the ones who come riding east with great flashes of lightning, rumbles of thunder, and downpours of rain. As I was reading I thought to myself, "I never noticed any Thunder Beings in my lifetime.

But I caught myself quickly. It was Labor Day Weekend, 1966. It was an event that has stuck with me as powerfully 41 years later as it did that night. The Thunder Beings had rode through town and moved on south and east out of the West Branch Valley. But there, beyond the Bald Eagle Mountain they continued to light up the summer sky.

We always called it "heat lighting" since it always seemed to be hot when we saw it. There was never thunder with it. We knew that it was really the light from distant storms, too far away to hear. But their presence was real. There they were, clouds miles and miles away reaching several miles into the sky. The lightning in the clouds kept illuminating the structure and folds and billows of the clouds. It went on for a couple of hours as the storms slowly made their way to the south and east.

It was my last night at home. Early the next morning we would pack the car and I would head off in the direction of that lightning to college. I would be leaving The Valley and heading beyond that southern mountain boundary that had been a reassuring part of my horizon for 18 years. I was scared to death. I knew everything - and I knew nothing.

I stood in awe of that light show for a couple of hours. I had already said goodbye to a couple of my best friends so I stood alone in my backyard. These 41 years later I don't remember the exact thoughts that went through my head. They were probably of my parents, both dead for several years. I probably thought a little about what it means to be a Christian instead of a Jew, having only been a Christian for a little over two years. I probably stood there and thought how awesome God really is- and how quiet I have to become when I watch His world at work.

I was as ready as I would ever be to move on. I would never return to The Valley to live permanently. A life I never even considered was waiting. The Thunder Beings, as I might describe it now, were leading the way that I was heading.

In digging into a little bit of mythology, for many Native American tribes the Thunder Beings were, like so much of the natural world, ambiguous. Too much of anything, even a good thing is not a good things. Thunder Beings are cleansing and life giving. They bring water from the West that will help the crops, animals, and people. They are a source of healing for the dry spiritual times and places. They share the power of The Sky. The lightning can show the way. I also found that in Chinese mythology, the Thunder Beings stand for enlightenment.

But there is always the caution. Too much rain, especially in western dry washes and gullies, can bring flash floods. Lightning is dangerous and can start devastating fires. Take too much medicine and it can kill you. Wisdom is needed. To walk wisely is to know that there are dangers as well as benefits. You can even die from too much water in your system- or from floods.

Those are all excellent descriptions for what happened that September evening in a land far away and a time long ago. It was a beginning, a start of a different life. The Thunder Beings were showing the way- and urging me to be cautious. It was a reminder that I should never forget my roots back there in the Susquehanna Valley for that is where I was raised and nourished. It has been a vivid vision for 41 years now. I now can say that I saw the Thunder Beings- and they were right.