High summertime – very hot, dry windy weather – brief thunderstorms are forecast – with a chance of flash floods and fires.
Caveat – to begin with: I participate in politics, but don’t write about it – I leave that to those better qualified than I. And I don’t write about the exigencies of aging – for the same reason. When I finally become a senior citizen someday, I may have something to say about aging.
TABOO –(tabu)
The word and concept of “tabu” entered the English language as “taboo” when it was carried back to London after it was first encountered by the explorer James Cook when he visited the island of Tonga in 1777.
It simply referred to that which was forbidden.
Seriously forbidden – by the ruler of the islands who was himself considered a god or at least one who spoke on behalf of the gods.
Taboos could apply to places, behavior, food, and relationships.
To violate the proscriptions of taboo could lead to severe punishment including banishment, dismemberment, or death.
Taboo is a heavy, powerful concept.
Along with unclean, sin, untouchable, and evil.
The English already understood the meaning of taboo.
There were 13 examples in the Ten Commandments.
The “thou shall nots and the thou shalls.”
My Sunday school class was required to memorize the list.
Alcohol was not on the list, by the way.
My mother said it should have been. I will explain.
Communion in the church I grew up in was prepared and served by the deacons to adult members of the congregation in trays containing small shot glasses filled with what I assumed as a child was red wine.
I was not allowed to take Communion.
But being a snoopy kid, I once went into the room where Communion was prepared and discovered that the “wine” was Welch’s grape juice. Alcohol in any form was taboo for the Baptists. And still is.
You can imagine my discussion with my devout mother – 2 parts:
“The Bible says Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding?”
“What were you doing snooping around in the church?”
We were not on the same page about much of anything religious.
For example, Baptists believed that dancing was a sin.
A taboo. But I love to dance. But that’s a story for another time.
I grew up in a world defined by taboos.
The world of segregation. It puzzled me then – and still does – Being “colored” made one an outcast.
It was a cover for racism, misogyny, and prejudice – and still is.
I remember trying to explain this some years ago to a census taker when she asked my ethnic identity. “Human” was what I claimed, and she explained that was not
a category on the list. She said I was “white”, and I said no.
I was “colored” and still am – not white, but beige – and now shades of pink and blue, too – with brown spots like a leopard.
Most of the rest of the world is some shade of brown.
Skin color is not an ethnic or personal identity.
But it is interesting to note how desirable a suntan is to those and those that are white spend lots of money to become brown.
Kamala Harris is not black, by the way, and neither was Obama.
Brown – light brown – tan.
Fact.
A taboo, also spelled tabu, is a social group’s ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group’s sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred, or allowed only for certain people
prohibitions are present in virtually all societies. Taboos may be prohibited explicitly, for example within a legal system or religion, or implicitly, for example by social norms or conventions followed by a particular culture or organization.
A rabbi friend reminded me that the Bible – the Jewish Torah – has 613 items that are in the shall-not and shall category. Taboos.
The Book of Genesis says that God forbid Eve to eat a fruit – not an apple – the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Taboo.
But Eve took the risk.
And there’s the key to the very human rebellion against taboos.
Especially when it comes to race, gender, and bad laws.
I believe that most taboos are evil. Those that shut us off from the reality of the richness of human diversity and become laws. And I believe that we are however slowly making progress – seeing that human beings can decide what is forbidden and not. Racism, misogyny, and ignorant mean-spiritedness have not ended. But that’s the direction humanity must go.
Hurrah for Eve who wanted to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. May the knowledge of the good prevail.