women and witches

last night my fever broke. i awoke at 1:45 am to a heavenly lack of pain. my pelvis no longer felt like it was being slowly split in two, and my eyes no longer felt like they were trying to escape through the back of my head. i was no longer freezing under three blankets and the july heat.

what a revelation it can be to only feel mildly ill. i sank into a deep and restful slumber.

today i just have to blow my nose and nap a lot.

part of me wonders if i had a bit of sunstroke along with a garden variety headcold. at the market on sunday i got quite burnt, despite repeated slatherings of sunblock, a hat, and an umbrella.

at the market i also started to think about witches.

i've been thinking about witches for a while, but more often these days. my recent spurt of witch contemplating started at the retreat i went to with my mum last month. on one of the nights, a bonfire was lit, and all the women (myself included) started to groove around the fire. it wasn't some new-age, or neo-pagan, or enviro-feminist bonding ritual. it was just for fun.

light a fire and watch women peel half their clothes off and start to dance. it's that easy.

no wonder we were pegged as witches.

is it possible that the witch hunts of early modern europe were simple a result of women liking to dance around fires?

;-)

but seriously, at the time i removed myself and thought, "wow. to an outsider this could look pretty weird. especially if that outsider were a guy who hadn't gotten any in a while."

but anyway, back to the market and the sunstroke. the thing is, bringing one's wares to market is such an age-old activity. it reaches back through the generations, this ancient profession of mine, as do the petty politics that arise when people's character (or lack thereof) is brought out by the stresses of not having a good day, in terms of sales. some people tend to despise those next to them who are doing well, some people look to every external circumstance they can to blame their lack of sales -- "i'm not in my normal spot, that girl was standing in front of my booth for too long, i don't have my usual neighbour, that man is talking too loudly, i didn't bring the right tablecloth, my new neighbour's sign is too flashy and his table is too big so i have to move a foot over and now my stuff isn't in the sun", and so on. others are lackadaisical -- feet up, dreaming of beer all day long in the heat, regardless. or philosophical, "sales come and go -- who can explain the whims of the masses? tomorrow may be better." others get depressed and don't come back.

and i started to think about the infamous witch hunting craze that really started to take off in the 15th century in europe. and i could really see how, if we were as deeply superstitious and uninformed, the same thing could happen now. there are always those who look for others to blame, no matter how ridiculously. (i lend you my pot, you refuse to give it back, i yell at you, then coincidentally, your crops get blight in the next few days, and suddenly i'm accused of witchcraft. (that's how it worked, mostly.)) we may think we're smarter than that now, but i wouldn't put it past a few of the market vendors today to watch one of their fellow craftsmen burn for the sake of getting rid of a rival, but under the guise of righteousness. it only takes a few bad apples to rot whole the barrel.

some days at the market i feel like i'm participating in something medieval.

(some days, it feels downright roman.)

i guess, what i'm saying is, i get how these things can happen. the witch hunts, as terrible and unjustified as they were, make sense to me sociologically. perception is everything and sadly, we usually only have two eyes to see from.