Stones

Jan 06, 2025 09:22

He asked me why we now had a bowl full of stones on the table in the Meeting Room ( Read more... )

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mairi_dubh January 6 2025, 10:56:18 UTC
"stones are the bones of our Mother..."

...strikes me as sounding very Jean Auel-like.

I'm very much liking your bowl of stones.
Why not say the truth, that the idea came to you not as thought but as inspiration? It has become quite usual (here, anyway, with "here" being local or regional to my knowledge but might be a national thing, too) to explain, "God/the Lord put it on my heart to [or, that] ____________" and of course that blank is filled in with the inspiration, assuming that the speaker was inspired and believes the inspiration to have been divine.

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poliphilo January 6 2025, 11:20:17 UTC
I'm afraid it would be considered thoroughly unEnglish. If I said "God put it in my heart"- my interlocutor would think I'd lost my marbles.

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mairi_dubh January 6 2025, 11:33:16 UTC
M'm, no. It is very specifically, "...on my heart." That God put it on one's heart, not in it.
Almost as if "it" is a burden, an obligation, a duty.

Ever hear this? "What other people think of me is none of my business." Maybe acquaintance with someone who's lost his or her marbles would do your interlocutor a power of good.

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heleninwales January 6 2025, 11:52:23 UTC
It's talking about suggestion coming directly from God that would sound weird to British ears, regardless of the specific wording.

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mairi_dubh January 6 2025, 12:23:27 UTC
Specific wording has to do with whether or not I was quoted or misquoted: I strongly dislike being misquoted; there is a difference between "in" and "on," and Tony misquoted me.
Simple.

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poliphilo January 6 2025, 18:05:08 UTC
Sorry about the misquotation. It was based on a misreading. "In my heart" sounds right to me and "on my heart" sounds very strange- archaic even. I wrote what I thought you had written, not what you actually had.

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poliphilo January 6 2025, 12:10:21 UTC
It's just not something an English person (outside of certain sects) would say. We're talking cultural difference.

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mairi_dubh January 6 2025, 12:20:06 UTC
I still don't see the problem, other than you want not to be thought of as having lost your marbles.

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poliphilo January 6 2025, 18:02:10 UTC
It's a phrase that simply wouldn't come naturally to me.

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