Foos yer doos?

James Cathcart June 07, 2022 0 6

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Ezekiel 11: 14-25 (NRSVA)

14 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 15 Mortal, your kinsfolk, your own kin, your fellow exiles, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘They have gone far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.’ 16 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far away among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a little while in the countries where they have gone. 17 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. 18 When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. 19 I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord God.

22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. 23 And the glory of the Lord ascended from the middle of the city, and stopped on the mountain east of the city. 24 The spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen left me. 25 And I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me.

Foos yer doos? A common question you might think. Well that is if you speak Doric, the Scots from North Eastern Scotland. If you don’t, it might seem an uncommon question. Even a mysterious one. (Foos?) What if I told you it meant “How are your pigeons?” Does that clear things up? Not really eh?

Well I can tell you this is a common question in the North East. I can’t tell you why Doric speakers are so concerned with pigeons and yours in particular. I can tell you a common response is “Peckin awa”. But again I can’t tell you why. I just dinnae ken.

But then, with questions like this we’re often asking for the sake of asking. Oxytocin (a social bonding hormone) sparks a little bit even when we just make eye contact with a stranger. We are meant to notice one another. Why not ask about pigeons? All we’re doing is taking the time to notice somebody else. To recognise and be recognised. Foos yer doos? Aye peckin.

And perhaps Doric speakers ask about pigeons because pigeons (or doos) speak of home. They are birds that travel, that spread their wings and then come home. By asking about birds they’re conjuring the whole experience of life: the coming and going, the setting out and returning. We don’t have hearts of stone, we have light hearts that long to know one another, to flock together.

And watching birds runs deep because we’ve always done it. I heard a while ago a theory that humans are particularly attuned to birdsong because when we lived nomadic lifestyles birdsong was a sign that we were nearing water or shelter, a good place to stop. In other words: home. The song of birds tells us we’re home. The cooing of birds, real or imagined, in the dovecots of our souls tell us we’re home. Which is why we often talk about the Spirit as a bird or with avian metaphors. Birds are musical, guiding us to places to live. Just like the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER:

May we be peckin awa

wi you

biding our time

learning how to discern

hame

at lang last.

Amen.