Something To Chew On

OK, it wanders off religious, doesn't it. Anu Garg's word this morning is "manducate" which is a verb meaning "to chew" from Latin "mandare" meaning "to chew." The etymology goes naturally to mandible, and to masticate -- which I visualize as someone salivating disgustingly while chewing a bite of rare steak, or a goat chewing on a mouthful of hay that's sticking out of both sides of its mouth -- but interestingly enough (there's that expression again, that gives the clue that it's not going to be interesting at all but the most boring thing ever read) -- Garg says, interestingly enough, that the Latin word mandare, "to chew," stretches out to "manger." 

So, where does the mind go with this? I only know one manger, the one back there in Bethlehem in which newborn Jesus was laid after the BVM wrapped him in swaddling cloths. Was the Star shining? No, that was Matthew, wasn't it, the manger belongs to Luke. The manger was not likely a wooden structure out in the stable as we often visualize in our creche, but a hollowed out stone feeding trough 

in the lower part of a house in ancient Palestine, the space where the family kept their animals, their sheep and goats, at night. The couple that in due course would come to be revered as The Holy Family were lodged there because there was no space for them in the guestroom. The manger was where the animals chewed their food, hay, grain, whatever they chewed on. I don't much like this, because it's the wrong music for "Away in a Manger" and changing the tune of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and making Christmas more earthy than heilige, thanks a lot, Anu. But then, seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will, eh? I don't think so.

The man?  I have no idea. Is that you, Anu?

W