Our Reason For Sparkling Things

 

 

I'd have a longer attention span if there weren't so many shiny things. ~ Darynda Jones

Did you know that Magpies (Jackdaws and other birds) steal bright and shiny things as gifts?  It is why people who fish sometimes put bright shiny hooks on their line.  We are attracted to bright and shiny things too.  It is why when we put on or wear bright and shiny things that it helps us feel happier, more positive.

Some say that shiny things represented water to our ancients.  Shiny things represented hope, water, meeting needs to our predecessors.  As well, all the things that water represented, like fish, flashing in the waters, meant food and survival.  There are shiny colorful fish  and we seek them yet.

Of course, bright and shiny things could mean danger as well.  Colorful frogs, spiders, snakes, for instance, can often mean they are poisonings.

  Human beings like the shimmer and colorful because we were made to be drawn to such.  It is also that we have eyes that see frontways.  Shiny and bright things are caught better in our peripheral vision. 

It is why we are still so preoccupied with bright shiny things, like whitened shiny teeth, nail polish, sparkling eye make up and liquids to brighten the whites of our eyes. (Never mind we may have forgotten that shiny eyes usually meant high fever.) And jewels and diamonds.  Oh yes, and why diamonds are called ICE. 

And so we decorate trees with tinsel and bright lights and why, I, decorate my outside, every season, with twinkling lights.  Yes, this idea is old, and so I accept why I do it.

©Carol Desjarlais 12.17.22