Sometimes we use terms so sloppily.
Not really giving much thought to their origins.
Like recently I was talking to a
guy about the power of Asian symbolism and he got a little impatient with the
whole discussion and said, "Enough already. I got Asian symbols up the
yinyang."
Never once did it occur to him that
the term yinyang, which he used to indicate an orifice in his nether regions,
was in fact a contraction of the two words yin and yang, usually represented
with the Chinese symbol of two paisleys mating.
Not sure how yin and yang, which
sort of represent the oppositional nature of all things, the good and bad, the
beautiful and ugly, the powerful and passive, came to mean the cave closed with
a sphincter, but language and symbolism is funny that way.
On a similar note, I saw a sign
recently outside a church's community garden. It said, "Garden of
Weedin.'" Very cutsie. A nice little play on words with the old Garden of
Eden.
But then I thought about it a
little bit. This was a church, so I figure they know the story. The original
Garden of Eden was a literal or figurative tale, depending on what church you
were raised in, for the fall from grace of mankind. Meant to explain why the
world isn't paradise, and we, humanity, are somehow at fault for making it so,
perhaps with our false apple-eating pride.
But the thing is, in the story, the
Garden of Eden had no weeds. It was flawless. Weeds were part of the curse laid
on us all. There was no weedin' in the Garden of Eden.
Hmmm. Weedin' implying Eden. Maybe
the church's sign was meant to symbolize the Yin and Yang in all things.
America, ya gotta love it.
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