I have been walking past a house nearby with the dog, waiting to see the owner out in the garden. They have these little patches of flowers (it looks like a fairy garden in the evening sun) and I wanted to know what they were, as they looked like little daisies. As it turned out, they were little daisies, called "lawn daises" - which I have never heard of before. She offered me some that I could start growing, but as I was with the dog I gratefully declined and went on my way.
We do have some daisies growing that randomly come up around the place, with the one in the picture a solitary fellow standing near the driveway. I was wondering about that "Loves me" using daisies game and decided to search for it, finding out that it was French in origin (of course) and is more than "loves me, loves me not". Apparently, it cycles through five options, and the last petal is the "truth" about their feelings.
Effeuiller la marguerite
Un peu (A little)
Beaucoup (A lot)
Passionnément (Passionately)
À la folie (Madly)
Pas du tout (Not at all)
Superstitions and fortune-telling are funny things, because I think that we all have some attraction to them, even if we are not believers. My daughter is born on the 13th and has recently found out it is unlucky, and it annoys her. However, all numbers are probably unlucky, depending on the cultural filter. Thirteen is unlucky likely for religious reasons based on Judas being the thirteenth guest at the last supper, and in Norse mythology, Loki being the uninvited thirteenth at a banquet in Valhalla that caused chaos and killed the god Balder.
In China, 4, 14, 24 are all unlucky. 8 in India. 7 in Vietnam and Thailand. And 39 in Afghanistan - because it sounds like dead cow.
Humans are silly.
But no matter how logical we believe ourselves to be, if we pay attention, we will often find little signposts indicating our illogicality. We play little games, like "love me not" or avoid walking under ladders, or avoid breaking mirrors - or somerthing. Likely, we all at times do something, believe something, or wish something based on two otherwise completely unrelated events. Like wishing on a shooting star, a fallen eyelash, a birthday candle or a wishbone.
Not that we expect it to come true.
But we secretly hope it would.
Imagine what the world would look like if people were granted a significant number of their wishes. It would be pretty chaotic, with far too much materialistic creation, as well as a lot of unnecessary deaths - I wish you were dead - kind of things.
I once wrote an article here positing the idea that our wishes can come true, but when selected it is like a lucky dip into a pool of all the wishes we have made. And like me, I would say that we use "I wish..." for a lot of things that if we actually had a genie to grant, we wouldn't use the wish for.
I wish it was warmer
I wish I was taller
I wish it would rain
I wish I had a new car
I wish I hadn't eaten that last cookie....
A million wishes in the hat, so that if one is actually selected, the chance of it being anything significant is very low. But it does explain some of the highly random events that have happened, where out of the trillions of wishes, some crazy ones occasionally get selected.
I wish I was president...
I wish I was a trillionaire...
Anyway, I thought it was nice that the neighbour offered some flowers to me, and I kind of feel bad I didn't take them, because I think it would have made her happier than me. But, at least now when I walk past and see her in the yard, I can stop and have a chat about something, and bring a little bit of community back into the world.
I wish....
Taraz
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