12:38 AM - 11.11.04
Symbols
Mr. Kretz is one of the people I always think about on Remembrance Day. He was the first principal I had at school. He was very intimidating to look at through the eyes of a five year old child. Tall and squarely built, the military buzz cut still very evident even years after his discharge. And the sleeve of his grey suit neatly pinned up marking the arm that was missing. How very strange to meet someone in the flesh who wasn't physically "complete". He had a gruff voice and seemed very remote - except when he smiled.
The only time I saw him really angry was once when a boy taunted a girl. You see the rural community I lived in - which has long since been incorporated in to the city of Calgary - was where a lot of the refugee and immigrant families, trickling over to Canada after World War II, chose to live in our part of the country. The housing was affordable and in addition, there were all the large, young Alberta born families just trying to get on their feet during the days in the middle of the baby boom after the war. Everyone was struggling together, helping each other to live within their means. I had no understanding of how unique the community was until we moved to a more "upscale" neighbourhood when I was 10. Upscale only in the sense of more money though, certainly not in terms of the quality of the persons living in the homes near us.
There were tensions in my community that I didn't understand then. Why the one boy in my class was so embarrassed because his Dad didn't live with their family. I just felt badly for him. Why some of the children from one family weren't allowed to associate with other children because of the countries they had been born in. Both families were made up of very nice people and their children were great fun to play with, so why couldn't we play together. The exotic children from the Mediterranean countries - Greece and Italy - why they struggled to speak English. Why the children from the elementary school one farmer's field away told us that we couldn't play with them because we were not of their faith. Christian is Christian, right? Apparently not, according to their priest. They were told we would corrupt them. At five years of age I didn't even know the definition of corrupt nor how one would go about being so. One of the girls told me that it was because we didn't speak Latin or wear veils to church. I asked my mom for a veil, but she said I was too young for one. I also asked her for a pair of long button-up gloves for church, but had to make do with the short ones like all the other girls. Then there were the children of the families of Chinese descent. Canadian born, but we never got to know them because they worked in their parent's stores after school. Bummer.
So which of the simmering tensions finally made Mr Kretz really angry? Well the boy that had taunted the girl - she was in my class and he was three grades ahead - had called her a name. We all got called names, so I didn't understand why this was bad until I heard him explain in the morning assembly why the boy was going to be getting the strap. Getting the strap was almost unheard of and was only used for the most terrible of school crimes. It was considered almost to make the child in question a pariah in the eyes of the other students.
There were two black families living in our community. One had moved to Canada from the US and the other from Jamaica. Other than being intriguing in that they could tell stories of places we had never seen, there was no difference in the way we interacted with each other when we played. This boy had called my classmate a name that had to do with her skin colour. Mr Kretz said he had joined the army to fight in the war to ensure everyone in Canada could live free from prejudice. He said he had lost his arm during the fighting and wasn't going to have anyone in our community show disrespect for the sacrifice he had made. He then marched that boy out of the gym for his punishment. The message was heard loud and clear - the warrior had spoken.
In my e-zines today the Harry Potter newsletter. I finally got a good look at the symbols tattooed on Sirius Black's chest. Not astrological glyphs after all. Runes they are and in the poster it appears the lightning bolt on Harry's forehead is also runic. Harry's rune is "Ur" - the sign of the Auroch drawing, too, from the Mithraic traditions. The warrior. It requires the abilty to accept and deal with change and greater responsibility than one can conceive of in their present state.
The two runes for Sirius are "Peorth" which has to do with the strategic use of fate - Chess being a good example. Every move is a winner and a losing proposition depending on timing and a deep understanding of one's oppenent's nature. It is connected with things hidden or secretive. That can mean an inheritance or a skeleton in the closet - or both depending on how one conducts oneself with intent. The second rune is "Eolh" which means protection in times of danger, but also has the reverse meaning of being blamed for some one else's actions. It also indicates something hidden or secret. Hmmmmm.
The secret for me was that one of my runes is missing and in it's place it appears a cat has traded it for it's treasured toy mouse. The rune missing is "Lagu", which is the symbol for water, the moon, the hidden part of one's nature and one's intuition. The teaching for that rune is always to listen to one's inner voice - the still small voice within. Hmmmmmm too.
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