Tag Archives: sickness

How to cure a cold (with optimism)

Nationality: American
Age: 59
Occupation: Psychology Professor
Residence: Forest Falls, CA
Language: English

Text:

“My cure to the cold is to drink lots of fluids, like tea, and to have an optimistic mental attitude. I synthesized this from drinking lots of fluids being good for you and tea kind of being a good warm…. like tea, so warm fluids being good, and the… I can’t remember where it is… and a combination of the Bible, in Proverbs or wherever it is, and kind of the medical stuff like… I don’t know. It seems like you can release endorphins, I don’t know if ‘endorphins’ is the right thing, but it seems like you can fight off infections that way. So I just put this stuff together and thought that you could have this optimistic attitude to fight off what’s coming. But it seems to me like it only works at the tipping point, like it could be right at the balance. But once you’re sick, you’re sick.”

Context:

Informant KB is a highly educated individual and has a background of studying psychology and religion. He was also raised in the Seventh-day Adventist church, which is distinct for its emphasis on health and dietary restrictions. Despite general anti-science and anti-evolution tendencies in the Adventist church, KB is an adamant believer in synthesizing his faith with the findings and practices of the scientific community. As for Biblical references, KB may be referring to Proverbs 17:22, which reads, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Analysis:

Cures to the common cold are numerous and variable, especially because there is currently no institutionally recognized cure. KB’s hypothesis is representative of the nature of folklore as “might be right” knowledge. KB draws on his background in psychology, citing the potential healing power of endorphins in response to a positive mindset. However, this particular cure implies that if one does not succeed in being optimistic enough, they are responsible for their own fall into illness. This may or may not intentionally parallel the common Christian view that if one does not take responsibility for their ‘sinful’ human nature, they are responsible for their eternal damnation.

A Man in a Hospital Trying to Learn More

Nationality: Irish

Occupation: Horse Race Track Manager

Residence: Waterford, Ireland

Language: English

Text:

A few months ago, in a local country hospital, in County Cork a ways outside the city, a nurse picked up the phone and a voice said “I’d like to know how Aidan Sexton is doing, he just had a very serious operation and I’d like to know how his recovery is coming along. Was the operation successful, and if it was, how much longer will it be until he gets to go home again?” The nurse said “hold on please” and disappeared for ten minutes to find his file. When she got back she said “well, looking here he had his operation and it was very successful, he’s recuperating very well, and if it all keeps going well he will be home in about two weeks time.” The nurse then asked “by the way, who am I speaking to?” and the voice said “this is Aidan Sexton, nobody tells me anything in this place.”

Context:
I had to ask my aunt if this really happened, or if it was made up. At first I thought it was real because she chose to use a real sounding name, and the story isn’t clearly fake, but she confirmed that it was made up at some point and she wasn’t aware of anyone actually doing this. She added that Aidan Sexton is a real person she knows, and his name was the first to come to mind as she was telling the story, but he has no specific connection to the story. She also said that she first heard the story told at a pub, after a man complained about needing to drive for an hour to be able to see a doctor.

Analysis:

The story reflects an overall frustration with medical care, which is often even more significant in rural areas where hospitals are often understaffed, far away, and don’t offer the same quality of care as hospitals in cities. The fact that my aunt chose to say the fictional hospital was in County Cork, close to where she lives, and the fact that the name she used was the name of a person she lives across the street from, all point towards the story reflecting her own personal frustration with medical care. The fact that she first heard this story in a pub reflects a lot about it as a form of storytelling; it has just two characters, making it easy to recite, and it is a very quick story which means that it can be told by a less experienced storyteller (or a more experienced one who had a lot to drink), and it does not need to hold an audience’s attention for a long time.

Sick Foods

Text:
Growing up, when the informant got sick, his parents would always feed him the same boxed chicken noodle soup. He remembers it coming in small red boxes. He would also get biscuits, or crackers if they had no biscuits. What he was given to drink was always seven-up, though when he was older this was sometimes swapped out for Gatorade. Recently, he found some other people online whose parents had also given them Chicken soup with seven up when they were sick. He was also told to lie down on his left side, which he still does occasionally and it seems to work fine.

Context:
He has absolutely no idea why these foods were the specific ones that he always got. He can understand Chicken noodle soup and biscuits being good foods when sick, because they are warm and rather plain/simple when it comes to flavor/spices, but can’t for the life of him figure out why bubbly seven up was in there. He thinks the lying on his left side might be to help with digestion, but isn’t sure why it’s specifically his left side.

Analysis:
I think the informant is correct that the foods are chosen based on being simple and palatable for a sick stomach, as well as warm. I think always the same so that when a child is uncomfortable and sick, they can be comforted by having some structure and consistency returned to them via the food they’re given while they’re feeling weird and foreign. I’d imagine that the seven up is given to the children because it’s tasty but not all that hard to digest, so the value it brings the child through enjoyment of their meal helps them feel better more than any sugar in it would make their sickness worse. I have no better guess than my informant on why he was told to lie specifically on his left side.

Lithuanian Folk Simile: “Healthy as a Radish”

Nationality: Lithuanian American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: February 21, 2023
Primary Language: English
Language: Lithuanian

Text

Original script: “Sveikas kaip ridikas.”

Transliteration: “Healthy like radish” / “Healthy as a radish.”

Free translation: “Snug as a bug in a rug.”

Context

IZ is a 20 year-old college student from Lisle, Illinois, living in Los Angeles, California. Both her parents’ families immigrated to the United States during World War II and remain connected to their Lithuanian roots through strong immigrant communities in the US.

“My dad loves this one,” IZ said about this folk simile. She described it as one that is only used around close family members and said by adults to children in an affectionate manner. “It’s a little silly,” she said, “because it rhymes.” For this reason, we chose “snug as a bug in a rug” as a potential free translation of this phrase, since it preserves both the rhyming and silly tone of the saying, as well as its social dynamic of being a saying communicated from parents to children.

IZ recalls both her father and grandfather using this expression to communicate comfort at times of sickness — a time when one has a red face, alluding to the color of the radish. She emphasized that it would only be said informally among family, from adult to child.

Analysis

As IZ explained this folk simile to me, she was quick to mention her association of these words with her father. This represents the power of folklore to be associated with a specific person even as it is a broader cultural production. I would infer that many other Lithuanian kids are reminded of family upon hearing these words. 

The strict confinement of this phrase to the nuclear family serves to define the boundaries of the family to young children as they learn social dynamics. Additionally, the knowledge that this phrase is only said to children implies also a knowledge of what is appropriate language to adults.

This proverbial phrase also contains variation in that it can be applied to diverse instances of redness, including from the cold. Lithuania is a country with very cold winters and moderate summers. I can imagine potential variation in this phrase being applied to redness from the cold. An ironic application could refer to redness from drinking — this would subvert the norms of only using this proverbial phrase toward children. More research is needed to see if this is an existing variation of the phrase.

The appearance of radishes in this phrase speaks to the cuisine of the country. Lithuania’s climate is suited to growing root vegetables, including radishes but also potatoes and beets.

Don’t Sleep With Wet Hair

Background:

Informant is a Chinese-American student at USC.

Main Piece:

“My family was just so convinced that like, nothing is ever dry until it’s bone dry. So I would go to blow dry my hair, and they’d be convinced, ‘no, it’s still wet’ and I would just keep on going, and they wouldn’t let me like go to sleep with like wet hair because I think they were just being like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna get sick’ and I was like, ‘No, it’s fine.’”

Context:

This conversation was recorded in-person.

Analysis:

Not sleeping with wet hair is something my parents have also told me. It’s a folk belief that is loosely tied with medicine/sickness, with the belief being propagated by the fact that it will scare children into drying their hair properly (though as my informant shows, at a certain age this wears off). There are probably scientific reasons either proving or disputing this claim, but considering that it was much easier to get sick pre-modern era, actions easy to control like drying your hair would probably be focused on the most.