THOUGHTS IN TRANSIT:
When a wishbone breaks evenly on both sides, does that mean both parties get their wish?
If the Etruscans thought of birds as oracles, and the Romans broke their bones in order to share their divinity, where does that leave us as we pull at reminders of holidays past that were forgotten in the sun?[1]
~
I’ve always found the bones to be too messy and sloppy. The grease on my fingers and the juices running down my hands make my skin crawl.
~
We know these wishes and powers of foresight are stored somewhere within the fusion of these bones, but what happens once the genie is released?[2]
I’d like to think that we shared the same wish and the mere thought of two opposing forces wanting the same thing was enough to split this bone into three.[3]
[1] This is a relic — born from the breast of a turkey that lived at least 10 years ago, I’ve kept watch over this wishbone as it sat with its brethren under my kitchen window since middle school.
Each time I saw these bones they crept further and further out of view, hidden under the many things that cluttered the counter.
I had assumed they were being saved for something grand, but we only broke them apart because my dad wanted to throw them out. (Maybe he was saving them for when we needed a wish?)
[2]Google says that Apparently the Etruscans also used
to stroke the wishbone gently as they made their wish — maybe genies and bottles
were really just chickens (or in my case, a turkey).
[3] Are we really opposites or just two sides of the same stubborn coin, more alike than we’d like to admit and driving each other to inevitably butt heads.
When a wishbone breaks evenly on both sides, does that mean both parties get their wish?
If the Etruscans thought of birds as oracles, and the Romans broke their bones in order to share their divinity, where does that leave us as we pull at reminders of holidays past that were forgotten in the sun?[1]
~
I’ve always found the bones to be too messy and sloppy. The grease on my fingers and the juices running down my hands make my skin crawl.
~
We know these wishes and powers of foresight are stored somewhere within the fusion of these bones, but what happens once the genie is released?[2]
I’d like to think that we shared the same wish and the mere thought of two opposing forces wanting the same thing was enough to split this bone into three.[3]
[1] This is a relic — born from the breast of a turkey that lived at least 10 years ago, I’ve kept watch over this wishbone as it sat with its brethren under my kitchen window since middle school.
Each time I saw these bones they crept further and further out of view, hidden under the many things that cluttered the counter.
I had assumed they were being saved for something grand, but we only broke them apart because my dad wanted to throw them out. (Maybe he was saving them for when we needed a wish?)
[2]
[3] Are we really opposites or just two sides of the same stubborn coin, more alike than we’d like to admit and driving each other to inevitably butt heads.