The haggis being piped in
Today is Burns Night when Scottish men and women traditionally party - eating haggis, drinking whisky, being merry. The centrepiece is the haggis which is ceremonially piped in to the dining room. The day is in remembrance of Robert Burns, poet.
Which is all coincidental and not the reason I am writing about Burns today.
A friend did a blog post a few days ago and he quoted the poem, To a Mouse, written by Burns in 1785, On Turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough.
The second verse struck me as particularly apt in these days of Man's abuse of the world around us.
I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!
I am truly sorry man's dominion has broken nature's social union. How often have we done that? Maybe not personally if we can help it, but in the choices we make. The food, the clothes, the goods we buy, use, and discard. For convenience and sometimes thrift.
I am as guilty as anyone, but, these days, I do try to be better. Often only to find out later that what I think is better is not in fact. Life is so confusing. We can only do our best with the knowledge we have at any time.
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Lumbago. Defined as pain in the lower back. It was mentioned in the Comments and I realised I hadn't heard anyone use that term for many years. It used to be a standard grumble when I was a girl. 'Oh, me lumbago's playing up something chronic.'
Now it's called lower back pain, which doesn't sound half as funny as lumbago. (Although I know there is nothing remotely funny about it.)
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Today is also St Dwynwen's Day, the Welsh equivalent of Valentine. I've written about this lots of times before including this post here.
7 comments:
Yes, we people have wreaked havoc for our fellow creatures. The virus has made us more guilty with (mostly plastic) packaging; but, it has cut down the air/sea/land travel that we had taken for granted and which is really hard on the environment we all share.
Never having tried haggis (it isn't big in the USA), it's hard for me to fathom that it rates piping in. Have some for me, Liz!
"To a Mouse" is my very favourite Robbie Burns poem. I have loved it since I first read it probably 50 years ago now.
I'll skip the haggis if you don't mind, CopCar! But do love a bit of scottish music and dancing.
I am very unfamiliar with Burns, debra, I must admit.
Bobby Burns Day was always celebrated in Newfoundland but I don’t hear of it here in Prince Edward Island.
Re Lumbago. Thanks for telling me the UK now uses the term Lower Back Pain.
I think my English vocabulary froze in the 1969 state when I moved abroad.
I was told off in Portsmouth 2 years ago for using the word Cripple.
Apparently that's not PC any more in the UK.
So what should I say instead?
You're little country all of your own, Marie!
Differently-abled, I think, Stu. But I am not a good person to ask. I have behind the times too.
Stu--I don't know what terminology is used these days. We had two men in our family who were differently-abled: Great-Grandfather was referred to as being one-armed while Uncle was referred to as afflicted (he couldn't open his eyes more than a slit, he had limited vocalization ability, and his body was ill-formed.) Being differently-abled was not all that big a deal, back then. They were just members of our family and productive members of their small societies.
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