February 18, 2005
Vertigo Update
Cubans have great "old wives tales." Things they tell their kids in order to keep them at bay or sometimes to explain the unexplainable. Little superstitions, if you will.
For instance, if you're chewing gum in front of an older Cuban and making those nasty gum chewing noises you may get this: Be careful and don't swallow that gum! A gum tree will grow in you stomach.
There's also the great embolia one. If you're at the beach or at a pool and you have lunch, then you have to wait a few hours for your digestion to be complete before you can go back in the water. If you dare go swimming right after eating, then you will get an "embolia," some kind of medical trauma like an embolism.
Oh, and ladies, never, ever put your purse or handbag on the floor else all your money will disappear. And if you're single, never, ever, ever, let anyone sweep a broom across your feet. If that happens you will never get married, youll be doomed to be a solterona.
There's a million of those little superstition nuggets.
Yet as silly as some of these sound, every once in a while you hear one that resonates in some way. One that makes you think for a second, wonder if it can be true, or if it has some basis in truth.
Last Sunday I was sitting out at ManCamp with my father before everyone showed up for his birthday celebration. Just tossing a few beers back and talking with the old man. I mentioned the heartbreak of the day before, of having to put our cat Kiddo McFiddo to sleep because of his injuries and how we both had cried our behinds off.
"I know it couldn't have been easy for you," he says. "But maybe it was for a reason."
I asked what possible reason was he referring to.
"In Cuba," he says."It's said that when an animal close to you dies, a pet, it means that he has taken a maldad, an evil, for you. He suffered and he died to rid you of some evil against you."
Now, I dont usually believe in all the superstitious stuff, but when my father told me that I had to stop and think for a moment. On Saturday, when I was doing stuff around the yard in preparation for his party, I had been feeling a little dizzy. And ever since the hospital visit I had been light-headed every day with little bouts of dizziness every once in a while. The vertigo had not gone away.
But Sunday, after having put my cat to sleep the day before and crying my ass off, I felt great. For the first time in weeks I wasnt dizzy at all. No light-headedness, no spinning environment, no listing to the side while walking. Nada. I felt great.
Did my cat give up his life for my well being? For my good health? Was he fighting some evil that was to befall upon me?
I don't know for sure. But I do know Kiddo McFiddo loved me and I do know that despite having compound fractures and a dislocated hip, when I picked him up to see what was wrong with him, he gave me no indication whatsoever of any pain. Nada. Not a peep or meow from him despite the fact that he must have undoubtedly been in severe pain. I dont know how else to explain it. It was like he knew he had to make the sacrifice. Like a noble warrior, a good soldier who valiantly and selflessly gives his life so that his brothers in arms may live.
And I never got to thank him.
Posted by Val Prieto at February 18, 2005 08:19 AM
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Comments
You just did.
Posted by: Keith at February 18, 2005 09:24 AM
Funny, I grew up with much the same sayings....though ours was never let anyone sweep under your feet or you'll never get married. That one never worked for me. Obviously. lol
Most of the time if you examine them closely, there is an underlying relationship as the basis of those old sayings. But more often that not, it's correlative, not causative. For example, we have a saying that when a crescent moon is tipped over, it means it's going to rain. (i.e., it's tipped over and pouring the water out) It tends to rain here about every 5 days, and the moon also appears tipped about every 5 days. So there's a link, just not a causative one.
Posted by: rita at February 18, 2005 09:28 AM
My Argentinian and Ecuadorean friends have told me the one about the purse on the floor, too. The Argies take it quite seriously!
But what a sweet comfort to learn of the story of how the little kitty took something evil away from you. It gives kitty's death some meaning. When my precious Willy kitty died, I had been unemployed for two years in the worst recession I had ever seen. At the second she died on my lap, I got a call for a second interview at a job I had applied for. Two weeks later, I got the job. My nightmare was over. I have always associated Willy's death with that extreme turn in fortune, always suspected Willy had something to do with it.
Rest assured Val, your precious kitty is purring without pain in Jesus' lap.
Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at February 18, 2005 10:12 AM
Yes, you did. And so did he. That light will be with you always.
Posted by: Laughing Wolf at February 18, 2005 10:30 AM
my children are my cats. anyone that loves their cats that much is alright in my books! god bless his fury little creatures!
Posted by: Ekaterina Amador at February 18, 2005 10:48 AM
Val,
There is more than one way to credit Kitty with this. I am a pet lover. I have cried over many an animal in my 68 years. But I think one of the key sentences in you post was "and crying my ass off, I felt great." I'm thinking that crying, which is good for the soul, is also very good for opening up the sinuses and causing them to drain. That may be the scientific explanation, the heart and soul explanation is that whatever caused you to feel better it WAS related to the kitty.
I wish Kitty hadn't had to die though. I had a stray siamese kitten, actually he was born to a feral woods cat here. I had him tamed enough to let me pet him. He talked to me every time I walked outside. He would be hiding in the brush but making his loud siamese MEOWRR and answering me word for word. When we went to Australia last summer I had a friend who was supposed to feed him daily but somehow he left and has not been seen again. I still miss him.
Posted by: Ruth H at February 18, 2005 02:23 PM
If the worst that las brujas del fidel can do is stopped by one small kitten, who is the pussy?
Posted by: homebru at February 18, 2005 05:33 PM
I always feel better right after a pig gives its life for me.
Posted by: Steve H. at February 18, 2005 07:13 PM
Do you and the pig become one? ;D
Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at February 18, 2005 09:00 PM
That was a "tremendo despojo" surely fidel has seen Babalublog and had one of his collective babalaos give you a "mal de ojo" that the cat took in to save you. Ayyyyy Dios Mio!
Posted by: cohetedude at February 19, 2005 01:09 AM
A few others my Mom told me about:
If you sleep with the moonlight coming through the window, shining on your head, you will go crazy.
Always cover all the mirrors with towels when it rains because mirrors attract lightning.
If you walk barefoot on tile floors, you will die of pneumonia.
Posted by: Mike at February 19, 2005 10:49 PM
