Glad everyone is now assured of everyone else's sex, if not religion.
I remember as a boy taking the sacrement, spluttering and coughing all over the place.
I don't know who was more embarrassed, me the vicar or the people standing in line for their turn. But I'm sure God wasn't.
I would like to take this opportunity of thanking all those people who voted in the poll, especially those who cast their vote correctly.
Perhaps you should thank all your election officials, the police, the priesthood, the Essex Police Crime Division/Drugs & Serious Crime Squad and the investigators of vote-buying allegations as well, Steve?
of course Walter, I am indebted to their invaluable contribution(s)
Especially the local priesthood.
I was rather nonplussed by Tex-stars reference to "drinking from the same cup" at a catholic mass--i spent 14 hellish years with fanatics of that persuasion, and nobody drank from any cup, apart from the ritualistic sip from the chalice which the priest takes, before communion. I rather think Tex-star has confused one church with another.
Maybe it has been a while since you've graced a Catholic church with your presence? It is quite common and catholic now to have a line up for the wine and for the wafer. At the local church there are multiple chalices... two at the front and two at the back (of course this depends on how many happen to congregate on that day) but definitely there are many sipping from a common communion cup.
There are some parishs, though none here, that don't approve of children drinking the wine....
You wouldn't have gotten me to drink after any of those louts in the ol' parish church back home--an' anyway, everyone knows girls has got cooties, so it would have been impossible . . .
You wouldn't have gotten me to drink after any of those louts in the ol' parish church back home--an' anyway, everyone knows girls has got cooties, so it would have been impossible . . .
Setanta, You still have those paper cootie catchers?
c.i.
Setanta -- that is funny... it has been a while but I remember trying to avoid drinking after one old guy who couldn't seem to keep from dropping a bit of wafer into the cup. It was not a pretty sight to see it floating there. You could tell where he'd been because the line for one cup would snake along the aisle, and the other would be non-existent.
By the by, it is a well-known fact that 'tis the boys what have said cooties.
Here's another perspective of "drinking from the same cup." When we were kids, all my brothers and I worked on farms during the summer months to harvest fruit. We drank from a community cup and water tank, and none of us thought anything negative from doing so. Most of us were Mexican, blacks, and Japanese Americans. It was another time in our lives before HIV/AIDS. c.i.
Do please enlighten me on cooties. And stop making up words that are not proper English. ok thats all for now
Could you get HIV/AIDS from something like that? A chance, I suppose. I think I'd risk it if I were thirsty. Do any of you remember the water drinking ritual in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land?
water-sharing (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=water-sharing) by sleeping wolf
Water-sharing is an idea from Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. It is a Martian concept, equivalent to an oath of brotherhood. On Mars, water is scarce, and (by inference from the text) water is hoarded. To offer someone water is an invitation to take part in the water-sharing ritual and become water-brothers. Note that the Church of All Worlds prefers waterkin for usage -- Heinlein's does not appear to have been meant to be sexist, but rather was due to the weird nature of Martian gender. It was considered a growing-closer, and in the book inspired a fierce loyalty in Michael Valentine Smith.
Water, elementally, is considered the element and perhaps the essence of life. Sharing water translates to sharing life, in the book with "all that Groks" -- divinity immanent in everyone. This obviously ties in with the idea of "Thou art God/dess". Water cycles through our environment and each one of us, and this ritual is a reminder of that which links life. According to both the book and CAW, you aren't just linked to those you have shared water with, but those they too have shared water with. In terms of a consciousness-sharing ritual, it can be compared with Wicca's Great Rite.
The form of the ritual in the book takes place between two individuals, we'll call them Foo and Bar. Foo offers Bar water. Bar can then accept. Foo drinks some of the water, and then offers it to Bar with the words "Drink deep" and/or "May you never thirst". Bar then drinks.
This practice is kept by the Church of All Worlds and also appears in various forms in the rites of Reformed Druids of North America and Ar nDraiocht Fein. Careful observers might note a similarity to the Christian Communion sacrament, particularly the form practiced by the Roman Catholic church.
Cootie -- defined in OED twice... Burns used it in an elegy to describe Ye Cootie MoorCock... which shows that it is definitely a male-oriented (or if you prefer orientated) disturbance.
One must, if one hears of cooties nearby, fling arms and dance about to get rid of them. Mustn't touch someone with cooties or they're liable to be transferred.
Steve, Actually, "cooties" have a long history in American tales. As kids, we used to make paper cootie catchers. We'd mark the inside of the cootie catchers with pencil dots to show we already had some, then grab somebody's clothes or hair with the cootie catcher to show they have cooties.
c.i.
Hey, I'm talking almost sixty years ago when times were alot more innocent!
c.i.
Very good, Steve, cooties and lice are closely related!
I never had a cootie-catcher though... My mom believed it was cruel to tease children about cooties, since sometimes the poorest, rattiest looking children were prime targets and I was encouraged to refrain from cootie-freaking as a child. She knew all the teachers -- I'd have been in big trouble!
Mmmmmmm, lice. Lousiness rules. Jesus was most likely lousy. He may or may not have smoked dope. He drank wine.
That's the scuttlebutt, anyway.
We always drew a cootie prevention device on our arms. If any disreputable kid touched us, we just pushed the button for protection. Of course, Mom didn't particularly like these, so I learned to draw them smaller and wash them off before I got home!
