Name Calling
I like fairies, though depending on your disposition you’ll either love them or hate them. As it happens I like them. They’re not everyones cup of tea but that’s okay. We can live with variety along this riverbank. Infact, I never knew how much I liked them until I got my own in a Facebook application called “My Fairy” And just for the record, I do have a life!
My fairy is called Calliope. There’s a lot in a name and I happen to think name calling is very important. “In Greek mythology, Calliope (“beautiful-voiced”, also spelt Kaliope or Kalliope, in Greek, Καλλιόπη, pronounced in English /kə’laɪəpi/ ka-LIE-oh-pee) was the muse of epic poetry, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and is now best known as Homer’s muse, the inspiration for the Iliad and the Odyssey.
She had two sons, Orpheus and Linus, by either Apollo or the King Oeagrus, of Thrace. She was the oldest and wisest of the Muses, as well as the most assertive. She was represented by a stylus and wax tablets. She is always seen with a writing tablet in her hand. At times, she is depicted as carrying a roll of paper or a book or as wearing a gold crown.” Interestingly, sans crown and non-monogamous alliances I had a startlingly parallel-universe moment just then. Ever have them yourself? I jest!
Fairies often get a bad rap because they take us into areas where some people aren’t comfortable going. Into the ‘dark’ some might say. To me there’s a sensibility about these things, if you don’t like it, don’t go there!
For the rest of us, well, make up your own mind and remember actions have consequences. If like me you merely dabble in ‘imagination-honing’ you’ll have a somewhat superficial interest in the life and times of fairies. In my books, superficial is okay. Just as an aside, I’ve often wondered if writers like C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien had moments such as these. Wondering in fact if such innocently imaginative paths all lead to one’s imminent destruction? Perish the thought!
Calliope and me have made friends right around the world in our little neck of the woods at Graciosa’s Hollow. It’s the smallest inhabited island in the Canarian archipelago. It’s home to marshwiggles, mugwumps hugags and other warm-hearted creatures. Above all its known for floral kindnesses, earthy laughter and a touch of mischief. Love them or hate them, children are enchanted by fairies and we adults might be too, if we let ourselves.
