Month: October 2002

  • Do you ever do that thing when you’re driving? That thing when you sort of come to with a jerk and suddenly think to yourself, “Hey....what? Huh? I have absolutely no recollection of the last couple of minutes. How did I get here?

    I do that a lot.

    Which may go some way to explaining why there is a bottle of flower essence with my name written on it waiting for me on the kitchen counter.

    Do you guys know about flower essences and flower remedies and what have you? Its another world, I tell you.

    mrs bln, in the last couple of years, has become quite a fan of such things. Homoeopathy too. And all thats ok, you know; it was in a sense me who prodded her in that direction by refusing to take conventional medicine every time I sneezed or coughed or looked like I might be feeling a little under the weather in the first place.

    She wanted something Id be more amenable to; she knows my preferences for the natural way of doing things.

    ****** “Why d’you want to have the baby in hospital? Let’s have her at home!”

    “Because hospitals are safer if anything goes wrong.”

    “Nothing’s going to go wrong. The midwife’d be right on top of things. Let’s do it! Hey! Let’s have her in the bath! Yeah, that’s a great idea, hey....hey...wait....come back....”     ******

    Anyway, one of the exciting things she has discovered is that not only are these natural remedies useful for treating recalcitrant husbands when they have a cold, but also for treating them when they're just being recalcitrant.

    Now I do believe that there is a lot in all of this. When Maya was born, Hannah was quite jealous of the attention she got at first and we worried about this becoming a problem. So mrs bln consulted my mother. Didn't I mention that? My dear old ma is a reflexologist and erstwhile healer and quite knowledgeable about such matters. And she recommended, if memory serves, a mixture of holly and gorse remedies. And it worked; Hannah, within about 5 weeks of beginning the course, became much more gentle and loving to her little sister. Could have been a coincidence, I know, but its one of those you had to be there things. But while I keep an open mind, I do still try my best to be difficult and feign disinterest in it all.

    But this time is different. This sensei (and you should know that while there is interest in alternative medicine in Japan, flower remedies and essences aren't well known here; its not a Japanese practice), this sensei apparently only wanted to know my name and date of birth and from that would divine what essence would help with those parts of my character that mrs bln cannot reach. From just the sound of my name and my date of birth, she would ascertain (in a manner which I am unable to relate) who I am and what I am, with nothing so disturbing to divination as an actual face to face meeting.

    And now the results of her magic await me in a small brown glass bottle on the kitchen counter. I am to take 4 drops 4 times a day. And it's got my name on it.

    Like a bullet....

    But I'm going to do it; bite that bullet for the sake of peace and quiet. (I'm not going to say that this time though...)

    And if, over the course of the next month or so, you notice a marked improvement in my character, a much more mature and responsible approach to life, you'll know why....

  • What is in a name?

    Specifically, how important is your surname to you?

    The reason I ask is because Ive been thinking lately about the fact that I am the last male in my family, have two daughters and am unlikely to have any more children (Id love to but mrs bln has had enough she says). Because of this, my surname, or at least the branch that ends with me, will be no more.

    To tell the truth, I feel a bit sad about that. Not because my family name is enormously rare or because I think its a name particularly worth saving but because it represents a line of ancestors going back, presumably, to Saxon times; a line which abruptly ends right here with me.

    A sense of my family history is important to me. I dont mean the tracing back through time of bloodlines and family trees but the personal history; stories that my parents and grandparents have told me and letters that I have read, found carefully stored for posterity. Those long dead people are part of who I am, part of who my children are and their children will be. And my name is intrinsic to that; it is what binds us all together.

    During my life I have met a few people with very unusual first names, I expect you have too. In my experience, they have tended to be pretty unusual people themselves, as though somehow the oddness of their name becomes just as much a part of them as their habits and appearance. For us less unusual folk too, our names are an important part of who we are and somehow we are our names.

    A common sentiment in Japan is that piercing, even of the ears, is wrong because your body is a gift from your parents; a gift that shouldnt be damaged so selfishly. In the same way, I think, a name is the parents gift to the child and it is a gift that deserves careful choosing. Parents who give their children outlandish names are to some extent, I think, giving them a a carelessly chosen gift.

    (As an aside, Ive never understood the custom, particularly popular in the States, it seems, of naming your child after yourself and your father and his father so that you end up with a John W. Codswallop III, for example. What, like King George III? What is that?)

    Well, I do have a slim hope, I suppose. If we stay in Japan one of my daughters might marry a man who would accept her family name and become a youshi ; an adopted son. And thereby ensuring that this fine old Anglo Saxon surname of mine would continue for the time being at least....in Japan..........

    Because women of course, at least in most societies, are obliged to give up their family name on getting married. Which is where the whole concept of the succession of surnames becomes rather complicated....

    So how important is your surname to you? Is it even something you care about?

    And for those of you who were wondering, my daughters names are Hannah Rhiannon and Maya Mireille and my surname is the Saxon word for a wood on top of a hill.....

    That's a 'wood', not a 'woody', Wally....

BobsLeftNut

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