Mythical beginnings translate into gospel truth more often than we care to admit. These same myths sometimes influence how we think and react to certain situations.
It isn’t only the spoken, but the written word, that affects how people think. Remember that popular poem about the differences between boys and girls? The mindset was instilled in people that girls were angelic (made from everything nice) and boys were bully brats (made from icky, squishy things). No wonder so many children behaved the opposite; tomboys and sissies existed in the good old days because girls resented the prim little dresses; they wanted to climb trees, play baseball, and relieve themselves behind a tree without having to run all the way home. In the female mindset, boys had all the fun.
Boys endured their own pitfalls. God help the boy who dared to hit a girl, even if she whacked him first. A guilty boy paid dearly when his father gave him a not so gentle reminder, applying a few welts to his backside to instill in his son an understanding of the genteel nature and weaker physical capabilities of girls. Boys wanted to experience the gentler aspects of life like music and art. If a boy, heaven forbid, preferred to do his homework instead of play ball, he was doomed and forever labeled ‘teacher’s pet’. There was a time when teachers outright favored girls over boys because of these preconceived ideas. What a paradox. Girls were expected to be studious, boys weren’t. Yet, boys were the ones expected to go on to higher education, and girls were expected to stay home and raise families. Could it really have been because of that nutty rhyme explaining the differences in the genders?
Animal myths also sprang up. This is my imagined take on how another popular myth was born. An about to be grandmother, who detested her daughter’s cat because it once mistook the movement of her seated backside for a big, fat mouse and sank his teeth into the protruding flesh hanging over the back of the chair, convinced her pregnant daughter the cat would have to be delegated to the outside forever once the baby came along, otherwise it would surely smother the baby to extract the milk it smelled on the baby’s breath. I still hear people relating incidents where babies were rescued from the clutches of cats just in the nick of time. Truth be told, there is no documented proof a baby has ever died from a cat trying to extract milk. Jealous pooches are another story altogether. .
Pigs still get a bad rap. Sure, if you keep your pigs penned up without changing their straw and giving them the option of cleanliness, they’ll get dirty, so would you under such circumstances. Pigs prefer cleanliness when given the opportunity. How sad and demeaning it must be for them to have slobs named after them.
There are many other myths I’ve heard throughout my life. ‘A girl or woman bitten by a snake will never be able to have a baby.’ If that was true , I can see fathers combing the riverbanks and marshes to stock their premises with various non-toxic snakes with the hope their teenaged daughters will get bitten.
‘If you look directly at a full moon, someone will die.’…duh, someone dies every second. If you looked at your preacher, president, or spouse, someone will die. Then there’s the one. ‘Never cross an antelope with a jackrabbit.’ Could someone explain the jackalopes running rampant in my backyard?
