Just a few things I thought were interesting/amusing in the past few weeks.
After opening up a box of Dunkin' Donuts and moving to grab a chocolate kreme one (basically a white powedered donut filled with chocolate cream with a dollop of decorative chocolate cream hanging out of one side):
Devon [all excited]: Don't eat that! It's got doggy poo on it!
Ah I love my kid, always looking out for my best interests. That is when he's not busy pretending to rip my head off. =p
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Talking to my mother about my grandparents' old home (they've both passed on already) and why my mom and aunts haven't done anything with it yet, she mentioned that if they tried to sell it, it'd be a hassle cause they'd have to get my grandparents' permission. Confused, I asked her what she meant. Now, worshiping one's ancestors is pretty normal in Taiwan (I believe it's part of Taoism) and I had known that there was a little shrine on the top floor of the home where I'd always have to visit once whenever I returned to Taiwan to pay my respects to my grandparents. What I didn't know was that because this shrine was there, any future attempts to move it (which selling the home would ultimately lead to), required the deceased's permission.
And how exactly do you go about getting their permission? Basically you have these two curved wooden markers which you hold in your hand while standing in front of the shrine and conversing with them, explaining the situation and then asking for their answer. Then you cast the markers onto the floor (or whatever flat surface happens to be handy). Depending on which side up the markers wind up, that's your answer. If both markers land curving upwards, then the spirits have found your request highly amusing and are laughing their asses off. If both markers are curved down, then the answer is no. If one is up and the other is down, then yes.
To me, this seemed pretty much like gambling. Plus I couldn't see what was stopping anyone from just throwing the markers until you got your preferred answer. So then my mom went into some anecdotal stories (which I won't get into here to protect the innocent) about how the spirit(s) would keep refusing until the living had pretty much explained everything that could possibly be explained about the reasons for the request. Which, now that I think about it, is pretty similar to what parents have to go through when trying to explain things to toddlers. They're not verbal enough to let you know exactly what they're thinking so you wind up explaining things six ways to Sunday in an attempt to get them to logically accept that what you're trying to get them to do or believe is the right thing. Except I guess when you're talking to spirits you can't use the "Because I said so!" nuclear option. Or maybe you can, you'd just have to deal with some possible hauntings and unlucky events afterwards. =p Which again, is very much like dealing with unruly children. ;-p
But anyways, I just thought it was one of the more interesting conversations I've had recently. Plus the fact that the markers give you not just a simple yes/no answer but also a "we thought that was really damn funny" option I found highly amusing.
