Saturday, January 07, 2017

On tiny hands, elves, and other small things

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!" - Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll 1872

I read the news today, and to quote one of my favorite people, "Oh boy!"

Amongst other things, a story about a grandmother in Brazil who has been mistakenly been praying to an elf for many years.

Apparently she believed the little statue she was praying to  was of Saint Anthony of Padua, when in fact it was of a "Lord of the Rings" elf named  Elrond.

Also in the news - another small thing - well maybe not so small, but the representation of a small thing. A Prozac pill. The late Carrie Fisher's ashes  were carried to her final resting place in a Prozac-shaped urn.

A respectful and generous act by her family - acknowledging her life-long work in getting the illness of depression accepted as such; attempting to de-stigmatize people who in many cases have to bear this illness in varying degrees for their entire lives.

Elves, Prozac pills. little hands - well I will get to the little hands L8R ...

Other little things - our new social media icons and acronyms. WFT? We don't need words anymore. Are we going back to ancient Egyptian times when we think and write in hieroglyphs? That is what I am thinking ATM.

One can write a whole sentence in emojis and TLAs. Or announce United States policy using abbreviations in order to tweet a spur of the moment thought in 140 characters.

But no, I don't want to think about it. I don't want to think about those little hands tapping out U.S foreign policy at 3 a.m. from a tall golden tower in his Manhattan elf-land.

Let's hope that Brazilian grandma keeps on a-praying!