Yes, I do realise that the title sounds a bit off, but how many times in our lives have we not heard one or both of these sayings when it comes to describing people and their relationships with others?
I bring this up because of some thinking I did over this past weekend (the Beltaine weekend) and two ladies chatting on the bus next to me on the way in this morning.
Please remember: this isn't an exact re-typing and might have been heard the wrong way (noisy bus and all that).
One of the ladies, today the worse-mooded of the two, was telling her acquaintance of a braai they went to last night at this lady's "friend" and how it didn't end up being all that. From what I gather, one of her kids has a SEVERE case of tonsilitus - it's so bad he has blisters in his throat - and after they'd eaten him and the guy the lady's seeing decided to roast some marshmallows (who else has had roasted marshmallows for breakfast before?)
Anyway, this child took two bites of his marshmallow and suddenly started screaming blue murder. It turns out this marshmallow was the straw that broke the camel's back (or the mallow that popped the kiddie's blisters) and he had ick apparently pouring out of his mouth. Gross much? The lady's "friend" apparently just stood there shouting at him or some such. So, they packed up and went home early.
In the next breath, she tells her acquaintance about this little girl she knows that's rather a cheeky child and constantly asks "why, why, why?". Maybe I've got the kat aan die stert beet but it sounds to me as if she has just as much trouble with other people's kids as what her "friend" has.
Thus the "Like calls to like" part of the title.
In "Opposites attract", I'm thinking about some of the guys I've been out with before, specifically one of my exes. Also a J, he is the exact opposite of me: very nicely dressed all the time (even only in swimming shorts and sandals), his hair styled just-so and rather metropolitan, quite deep-pocketed and quite showy. Look at me: I dress in jeans and cotton T-shirts, tackies when I'm not in the shop (or slip-ons), with long hair either tied in a ponytail or a knot, and I'm not particularly fond of being half-naked in front of others - when I am, I'm in boardshorts; also, I like to fade into the background. Yes, I have my moments when I show myself to the world (normally at our monthly tarot meetings), but directly after I'm done I try and turn invisible, and my pockets are rather shallow.
Yet, my relationship with J1 worked, even if only for a short while. We had fun, and we did things together like any normal couple would do. Our personalities were just VASTLY different.
So, ja, I don't know why we even still have those two sayings. They don't mean much in our modern lifestyles because we no longer have such a rigid social class system (despite how we LOVE to rag on about cliqués). We are such a diverse country with such an open social culture that we never had the "chance" to implement a caste system. So I say again, down with these two sayings.
Now, about Beltaine...
It was the first Beltaine I'd ever celebrated, either as part of a group or a solitary Pagan, and it was stunning. There weren't many of us (a large number of people either cancelled or didn't rock up at all) and out of a number of stalls, there were eventually only five. We had no day visitors either. But, once the sun had set, we really went into things. We didn't behave badly, and there was no animosity between anyone present. We danced the Maypole to great mirth and even got T tied to the "stake" to be "burned as a witch" - not my words, but rather effective, and a visual pun like no other on the night. Z also came to see what we'd done to T, but he ran away when I tried to tie him to his partner. Who knew someone wearing a caftan and gumboots could run so fast...? I blame the Maypole dance before-hand for my being unable to catch him.
All in all, I was again reminded: you really don't need more than a few people to have a party.
Blessed be!
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