Foot Spas, Blackbirds And Reincarnation

[poliphilo]

1. Ailz acquired a foot spa off Freecycle the other day. We went and picked it up and the man who handed it over at the door called me, "my man" twice in the course of thirty seconds. In the far off and long ago "my man" was how rich men in wind-up motor cars addressed  simple, smock-wearing country folk when they had to stop and ask them for directions. It was patronising to the point of insult. Coming from a scruffy-looking bloke in a council house it presumably has other connotations- but I can't say I liked it much.

I just topped the spa up with nearly-boiling water from the kettle. Ailz seems to be enjoying herself. There are bubbles.

2.The blackbirds who nest in our ivy have successfully raised one brood this summer and are now raising another. This makes me happy. One cannot have too many blackbirds.

3. Michael Newton- author of Journey of Souls-  says we enter into a covenant not to remember past incarnations when our souls return to earth. We have lessons to learn- and it's better we start with a clean slate.  Our responses will be fresher if events surprise us-  and the task will seem more urgent if we don't realise we have lives to burn. Yes-  fair enough-  but to know what I was is to know who I am- and I'm finding it really frustrating to be kept in the dark.

Comments

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he had heard it used by someone who was joking, but didn't understand the long ago context?
I actually thought that it was how men referred to their personal servants - never heard of smock-wearers being called that. Wouldn't they down tools immediately on the grounds that they are labourers and therefore vastly superior to manservants?
I know of someone whose husband constantly calls everyone "squire" because a delivery man called him that. The same man introduces himself with "I'm Mr X" because he worked for a rather pretentious firm that required its employees to address each other formally.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think it was- once upon a time- a form of address used by self-important people to anyone they saw as a social inferior.

One that amuses me is the custom round here of addressing people as "young man". I still get it sometimes- and even from people who are not obviously older than myself. I'm never quite sure how to take it.