Saturday, November 11, 2006

Parades (and processions) any Time at All

By the time we moved into our first house, we were expecting our third child and had been apartment dwellers for five years. The very first thing that Ria (then 4), Gus (then 2) and I did after the papers were signed on that house (and John had to go back to work for the afternoon, so we weren't really "doing" anything yet), was march around the table and sing as loud as we could. It felt so good to be able to make a little noise.

Ever since then parades and processions have been staples in our home - especially that first home which was quite small and had a basement that wasn't any good for playing in during long Wisconsin winters.

So I realized how completely inadequate my post about the "ologies" song was. This is a song about some of the "ology" words relating to the human body; like biology, ophthalmology, hematology, dermatology and cardiology. It's sung to the music of "Jamaican Farewell". This now has its own special dance step for parading around the house. I don't know how to explain it but it's a lot of fun, it keeps the kids fully concentrating and it's pretty good exercise.

I know, we're a little weird. :)

3 comments:

Dr. Thursday said...

Just a few -ology words I like are:

ontology - the science of being (a branch of philosophy
oenology - the study of wine
histology - the study of tissues (the architecture of living bodies)
epistemology - the study of knowledge (another branch of philosophy)
philology - the study of Language (or words) which was Tolkien's speciality - this not the same as lingustics, which is the study of languages.
geomorphology - the study of the shapes of the earth (a branch of geology)

There are lots and lots more, and the further into Knowledge one goes, the more there is to know. This is a great pointer to the One in Whom "are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2:3)

But! This parade/procession thing is a very liturgical matter, and will bear some hard study, if I get a chance. Please think some more about this wonderful and charming family action, and perhaps tell us more about your rituals - and I will see what I can recall about our own.

Christine said...

I love weird!
Are the other Lyrical Life Science volumes as good as the third?

love2learnmom said...

Thanks for the other -ology words, Dr. T. The one downside of the song is that it only includes nine - such insufficiency! I think we'll have to write our own additional verses. Hmmm. I had never heard of oenology or geomorphology before. I'll try to share more about our traditions at some point. It's usually rather spontaneous, though for a long while a number of years ago we sang "Ding Dong Merrily on High" (which has some wonderful "glorias") around the house after our morning prayers. We always do processions on Christmas morning (singing "O Come All Ye Faithful") and for our May crowning at co-op (everyone brings flowers and we all sing - such a treat). I think it flows quite naturally from doing a lot of singing together. I always did love the processions we had at the Catholic grade school I attended, for the May Crowning, 40 hours devotion, etc.

Thanks, Christine. I have to admit that I haven't listened to all of CD#3 yet. On the whole, Lyrical Life Science #1 is the favorite so far. Ria's favorite, however, is the Lyrical Earth Science. She's always loved rocks and fossils.