The Inexplicable Loose Tannin!

Quotation

 

Tea! That's all I needed! Good cup of tea! Super-heated infusion of free-radicals and tannin, just the thing for healing the synapses.

 

 — Russell T. Davies

 

“You're like a lighthouse shining beside the sea of humanity, motionless: all you can see is your own reflection in the water. You're alone, so you think it's a vast, magnificent panorama. You haven't sounded the depths. You simply believe in the beauty of God's creation. But I have spent all this time in the water, diving deep into the howling ocean of life, deeper than anyone. While you were admiring the surface, I saw the shipwrecks, the drowned bodies, the monsters of the deep”

 

— Alfred De Musset

 

 

Reflection

 

What does the following list of letter/number groupings mean: TheBarkKnight; axlbeau260; Domagoj83; Shanghai Sigh; FreeRangeRange; AydansLair; FD-148; Katrina666; promar1963; fabian985; Madmax16117; Mommylittle; The Rusty Banana; Dream Sequence; ChopNutz; Loose Tannin.

 

Kind of bizarre, right? Can you find a pattern or some common theme in the list above, or is it just a chaotic, jumbled list of senseless gibberish?

 

Give up? Would you believe the list is taken from names people have chosen for their avatar in an online game? Because I find the names so bizarre and interesting, I started researching the word meanings and origins of the names people have chosen, to see how the names they have chosen correlate with their style of play and the character they display in chat threads.

 

For instance, what if the player, Loose Tannin, comes across as a negative, insensitive, dominating, rude, overly critical, narcissistic, sarcastic, vindictive, toxic person while playing the game.

 

So, what can we glean from the name Loose Tannin and does this information give us any clue, why that person acts the way they do?

 

The word loose has many meanings: not firmly held or fastened in place; not tightly controlled or exact; having low morals, sexually free; to speak or express emotions very freely especially in an uncontrolled way. Hmmmm…it would seem, the last two meanings of loose may apply to the person, Loose Tannin, I have described.

 

I found the etymology of the word tannin very interesting! In my research, the word tannin has three meanings.

 

First, the scientific definition of tannin is a phenolic-based natural product, found mostly in the bark of pine, the wattle of mimosa and hemlock, in the wood of certain trees such as oak, quebracho and sumach, and grape skins/seeds/stems. Tannins are made up of two classes of phenols, flavonoids, and non-flavonoids. Tannins bind with proteins and precipitate them from solutions, creating compounds that are insoluble in liquid such as your saliva (responsible for the characteristic taste of wines, especially red wines), important for the wine’s longevity, and the liquids used in tanning hide. Okay, chemistry class is over!

 

Second, in Ancestry.com, tannin is listed as a surname, found in the USA, Canada, and Scotland, between 1841 and 1920. The most Tannin families were found in the USA in 1880. In 1880 there were six Tannin families living in Pennsylvania. This was about 75% of all the recorded Tannin's in the USA. Hmmm…Loose Tannin? Could that be the reason the name was chosen, a pickup line for the person choosing this name, having low morals or sexually free?

 

Third, the most interesting and the most applicable to this blog, is the word derivation I found which in general means “monster”. The word tannin is of Hebrew, Syriac, and Akkadian derivation, meaning a sea monster in Canaanite and Hebrew faith, often used as a symbol of chaos and evil.

 

Tannin is used in the Hebrew Bible fourteen times, in the book of Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Job, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, explicitly listed as the creatures created by God on the fifth day of the Genesis creation and in other ways in the remaining books.

 

Tannin is listed in the apocalypse of Isaiah as among the beasts to be slain by Yahweh on that day, translated as the dragon in the King James version. Tannin is conflated with the related sea monsters Leviathan and Rahab by Christians. Tannin is also a name applied to ancient Egypt after the Exodus to Canaan. Aaron’s staff becomes Tannin, a snake, in the book of Exodus and meaning the “snake” in the book of Deuteronomy and Psalms. The word represents Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah, Pharaoh in Ezekiel, and in the book of Job, the protagonist questions God, “Am I the sea or the sea dragon that you have set guard over me”. Another interesting fact, the name Tannin has been given to the three submarines in the modern-day Israeli Navy. In modern Hebrew usage the word tannin means crocodile. Hmmm…it would seem, at least in antiquity, the word tannin has a mostly negative meaning!

 

         Finally, when I researched the name Loose Tannin, used as a character name in an online game, the avatar chosen by that player was the avatar of Medusa. What, you couldn’t make this up, right!

 

The following description of Medusa is taken encyclopedia Britannica:

 

“Medusa, in Greek mythology, the most famous of the monster figures known as Gorgons. She was usually represented as a winged female creature having a head of hair consisting of snakes; unlike the Gorgons, she was sometimes represented as very beautiful. Medusa was the only Gorgon who was mortal; hence her slayer, Perseus, was able to kill her by cutting off her head. From the blood that spurted from her neck sprang Chrysaor and Pegasus, her two sons by Poseidon. The severed head, which had the power of turning into stone all who looked upon it, was given to Athena, who placed it in her shield; according to another account, Perseus buried it in the marketplace of Argos.

Heracles (Hercules) is said to have obtained a lock of Medusa’s hair (which possessed the same powers as the head) from Athena and given it to Sterope, the daughter of Cepheus, as a protection for the town of Tegea against attack; when exposed to view, the lock was supposed to bring on a storm, which put the enemy to flight.”

 

I don’t know about you, but what I found out about the name is kind of scary!

 

Petition:

 

Creator God, help me recognize the toxic people in this world so I can stay away from them before their character flaws affect me in a negative way! Instead, help me find the “good” people in this world I can associate with, to make this journey more pleasurable for the short time I’m here on this Earth!

 

 

Music

 

Medusa by Kailee Morgue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoxuYDvHbqs

 

Barry

 

LYRICS

 

There's blood in the water
And they're coming to bring me down
What's hope with no savior
Yeah, there's no one in this ghost town

She looked right through me
And I turned to stone
Medusa, Medusa, I've been here alone

And I crumbled to pieces
My body, my weakness is on the floor
And the wind will blow and blow
And I won't be here no more

My wishing well has run dry
Stars are dying in the sky
So I'll shed my blood and tears
I'll show no fear just to survive

She looked right through me
And I turned to stone
Oh Medusa, Medusa, I've been here alone
Ahh, ahh
Ahhhh

She says, mortal one you've been chosen
You're beautiful, but you're broken
So hold on to this moment
And fight until you're hopeless

There's secrets and riddles
That live in these walls
There's ghosts of past heroes
And I hear them call my name
We won't be tamed

Oh, she looked right through me
And I turned to stone
Medusa, Medusa, I've been here alone

She looked right through me
And I turned to stone
Oh Medusa, Medusa, I've been here alone

Ahh, ahh
Ahhhh

Ahh, ahh
Ahhhh

Where Are All the Lonely People?

Quotation

 

“Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.”

 

—Dag Hammarskjold

Reflection

 

When you hear the phrase, “where are all the lonely people”, what is the first thing that pops into your mind?

 

For my generation, the song Eleanor Rigby, by the Beatles, is probably the first thing that comes to mind. Just who was Eleanor Rigby, and was she indeed lonely as depicted in the Beatles song?

 

In a graveyard of Saint Peter’s Church, in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool, England, the name of Eleanor Rigby is inscribed. Although Paul McCartney said “Eleanor Rigby is a totally fictitious character” when asked about the song’s title, it was at this church, during a church festival, John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met. Paul McCartney later conceded during his many visits to the churchyard, he may have seen the headstone, and the headstone may have influenced him in a subconscious way.

 

The song Eleanor Rigby was primarily written by Paul McCartney and released in 1966 as part of a double A-side single which also featured Yellow Submarine. The single spent four weeks at number one in the United Kingdom charts and it reached number eleven on the United States charts and was nominated for three Grammys.

 

The song, Eleanor Rigby, is often described as a lament for the lonely, or a commentary on life in post-war Britain. The song features two characters, a lonely old churchgoing woman who is cleaning up rice after a wedding, and a pastor whose sermons will never be heard, because no one is coming to his church, or he’s afraid the sermons are not being received on a spiritual level by his congregation. Another feature of the song is an apparent swipe at Christianity because “no one was saved”. Interestingly, the song was released just weeks after John Lennon’s remarks, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now.”

 

Dan Peek described the song Eleanor Rigby in this way: an “overwhelming picture of the masses of humanity drowning in grey oblivion”. In a response to Eleanor Rigby, Dan Peek released the song Lonely People, through his group America. written within a few weeks of his marriage to Catherine Maberry. This song is more optimistic, telling people who are experiencing loneliness to not give up: “This is for all the lonely people, thinkin’ life has passed them by. Don’t give up until you drink from the silver cup and ride that highway to the sky.” 

 

But you might ask, that is all fine and dandy, but just where are all the lonely people?

 

Short answer, they are all around us! In a January 2020 survey of 10,000 adults by Cigna, 61% of those surveyed said they felt lonely. Many times, the reason we don’t notice the “Eleanor Rigby’s” and the “Father McKenzie’s” around us, is because we can’t get beyond our first impression. We need to look beyond skin colors, genders, ethnicities, body types, sexual orientations, or any other prejudices we may have, so we can see the “real person”. When a person sense they are not seen for who they are, they become lonely.

 

Loneliness is defined as “the distressing experience that occurs when one’s social relationships are perceived to be less in quantity, and especially in quality, than desired”.  Loneliness be associated with significant psychopathology including depressive symptoms, poor social support, neuroticism, and introversion. A 2021 study published in Lancet Psychiatry found associations between loneliness and depressive symptoms in a group of adults 50 years old and older.¹ Several studies have linked emotional stress with depressed immunity.² Research shows that the areas of the brain that deal with social exclusion are the same areas that process physical pain, adding a scientific explanation to the oft-romanticized experience of a "broken heart."³

 

 Because of these psychological characteristics, loneliness can lead to mental and physical disease, especially in the elderly population, when loneliness increases.

 

Richard S. Weiss developed a psychological theory of loneliness, in which he identified six functions or needs of social relationships that, if in short supply, contribute to feelings of loneliness and include attachment, social integration, nurturance, reassurance of worth, sense of reliable alliance, and guidance in stressful situations. 

 

Elizabeth Scott, PhD, in her article entitled How to Cope with Loneliness, offers the following tips on how to deal with loneliness:

·      Join a Class or Club

·      Volunteer

·      Find Support Online

·      Strengthen Existing Relationships

·      Adopt a Pet

·      Talk to Strangers

·      Practice Self-Care

·      Watch episode by Editor-in-Chief and therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares ways to stay strong even if you feel lonely.

·      See a Therapist

 

Virtually everyone experiences loneliness sometimes in their life. If you suspect someone is lonely, you can help by doing the following: be there; be patient; encourage and support.

 

Petition:

 

Creator God, help me find someone or something to live for while here on this Earth!

 

Music

 

Eleanor Rigby by Paul McCartney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weN-l8SOiFU

 

Lonely People by America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYGvKc7Q1PU

 

 

Barry

 

CITATIONS

 

1.    Lee SL, Pearce E, Ajnakina O, et al. The association between loneliness and depressive symptoms among adults aged 50 years and older: A 12-year population-based cohort study. Lancet Psychiatry. 2021;8(1):48-57. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30383-7

2.    Vitlic A, Lord JM, Phillips AC. Stress, ageing and their influence on functional, cellular and molecular aspects of the immune system. Age (Dordr). 2014;36(3). doi:10.1007/s11357-014-9631-6

3.    Kawamoto T, Ura M, Nittono H. Intrapersonal and interpersonal processes of social exclusion. Front Neurosci. 2015;9:62. doi:10.3389/fnins.2015.00062