Imagine a tax collector is sent up to the Scottish Highlands as the dreaded sassenach who everyone hates, but he makes lemonade out of lemons and writes down page after page of Celtic Christian prayers, songs and poems.
Celtic Christianity is like Harry Potter meets the Bible Belt. It’s so awesome. I’d go to that church tomorrow. Those early Celtic Christians were super passionate. And they weren’t esoteric about it… it permeated the whole culture.
But spoiler alert, turns out the sassenach tax collector was rather liberal with his interpretation of most of the prayers and poems, so current literary critics and anthropologists say that the exact wording is not accurate but the vibe is. I’m cool with that. You can read the whole thing here: Carmina Gadelica
I love this one which I’ve been praying as a sort of bubble wrap every day (modern Mrs. Xerxes translation: “Help me get through this day and all of the crappy people in it with benevolence in my heart. God give me the wariness of a deer, the strength of a horse, the wisdom of a serpent and the dignity of a king. And help me go out and crush it.”
I’m learning Scottish Gaelic on Duolingo… which helps almost not at all with this prayer. The only words I recognize are “milk”, “tongue” and “son”. I realize that learning an almost dead language on top of the already dead language I am already learning, is probably the most pointless exercise ever, but I don’t care. I tried to learn something useful like Spanish or Japanese and found I just really don’t like doing useful things. I tried the Duolingo Latin, but it was making me demented because in Latin word order doesn’t matter, but Duolingo hasn’t entirely gotten the message yet, but I love learning Gaelic, so they can take their time.
Unlike my love affair with Carmina Gadelica, there are some books I shouldn’t be allowed to read. I recently re-picked up “What Every Body Is Saying” which is one of those annoying book puns (it’s about body language and how to “speed-read people”). Sounds intriguing? Don’t pick it up if you’re already overly prone to reading into things. I felt like all of my worst people pleasing fears were confirmed. In the chapter “Torso Tips” it lists how if someone crosses their arms, or hugs a notebook or purse close, or keeps their ventral side away from you and swivels their head…then they can’t stand you, don’t like what you’re saying and can’t get away from you fast enough. (I’m exaggerating, but you can see where this can go wrong.) This was information I didn’t need to know. It’s bad enough to watch someone going in for the side hug that the other person misses the cue on.
Anyway, super fascinating book. I’m glad that some people don’t overthink people’s body language though… like an English tax-collector who probably ignored a lot of ventral blocking and torso tips to make a piece of Christian history immortal.