baaa
Tonight on my way home from work, there was a kid at the back of the bus who would just not stop singing nursery rhymes at the top of his voice.
For once, I actually had a seat and didn’t have to occupy my mind with discovering the very limited permutations and combinations of ways in which I could arrange my body so that it wasn’t uncomfortably crammed up next to the 5 people standing around me trying to claim some space of their own.
So I got to thinking about nursery rhymes. And why the hell every single Singaporean kid knows Baa Baa Black Sheep even if they will probably never have the opportunity to witness the phenomenon of a sheep, much less a black one, in their entire lives. Plus how many of us will ever have the need for wool on our backs, anyway?
I suppose I’ll just have to take comfort in the fact that this nursery rhyme imparts life’s true lessons to those not yet in the know about the ways of the world – always succumb to authority (Yes sir, Yes sir, Three bags full), serve those who rule over you (One for my master, One for my dame), and then if you have anything left after that, show some charity (One for the little boy who lives down the lane).
Here’s to the kid on the bus tonight, and to every kid who’s ever sung Baa Baa Black Sheep the way it should be…incomprehensibly.
For once, I actually had a seat and didn’t have to occupy my mind with discovering the very limited permutations and combinations of ways in which I could arrange my body so that it wasn’t uncomfortably crammed up next to the 5 people standing around me trying to claim some space of their own.
So I got to thinking about nursery rhymes. And why the hell every single Singaporean kid knows Baa Baa Black Sheep even if they will probably never have the opportunity to witness the phenomenon of a sheep, much less a black one, in their entire lives. Plus how many of us will ever have the need for wool on our backs, anyway?
I suppose I’ll just have to take comfort in the fact that this nursery rhyme imparts life’s true lessons to those not yet in the know about the ways of the world – always succumb to authority (Yes sir, Yes sir, Three bags full), serve those who rule over you (One for my master, One for my dame), and then if you have anything left after that, show some charity (One for the little boy who lives down the lane).
Here’s to the kid on the bus tonight, and to every kid who’s ever sung Baa Baa Black Sheep the way it should be…incomprehensibly.
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Ay-me Nay-mee Noo
posted by burgers and durians at
10:19 PM
5 Comments:
haha, thanks for breaking down the rhyme - i'd never actually thought about it before, although my dad often uses the phrase "baa baa black sheep" to refer to POC who in his opinion are westernized.
Really? Interesting. Following the herd who are aping the West, perhaps?
I have a hard time with that. Sometimes my dad (and other conservative-minded folks around me) use the label 'Westernized' to dismiss anything they don't agree with, like homosexuality or an assertive woman.
yeah, that's pretty much how my father uses it too. there are times when i agree with parts of what he says (like when he's talking about use of english by elites in s.asia), and sometimes i'm surprised by what he supports, but for the most part his analysis is very conservative, more abt his own bitterness than about justice...
awww, that kid sounds cute
my family uses that label in exactly that way too. one day my sister was telling me i was lost to the west, and it occured to me that i have uncles who are dedicated secular socialists, who drink and who have married outside our sect, and i said: bajji, we have a long illustrious history of non-practicers, even back home, and don't you think they only reason they are with brown people is because there's no one else around in pakistan, but had they been here they would have been open to dating people from other cultures?
Yeah, the East-West dichotomy is ridiculously simplistic, and frankly i think a lot of times it's a cop-out when people don't wanna take the effort to understand the complexity of a situation.
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