Magnets and the meaning of life

Yesterday I was up in Julian for the afternoon, and, like every other time I've been to Julian, the biggest attraction is all the shops. So Ryan and I browsed around for a while, biding our time until this chili cook-off started, and I saw some sweet magnets in one of the shops.

I've been meaning to buy sweet magnets for the fridge in Norfolk ever since I decided to move to Norfolk. And the ones in this store were particularly funny, so I bought three. Incidentally, each magnet turned out to correspond to each housemate--only one of them was intentional.

The first magnet I picked up was for Shannon. It says

I WILL NOT OBSESS
I WILL NOT OBSESS
I WILL NOT OBSESS

And it's freaking perfect.

The second and third magnets I bought because I thought they were funny. The second one says "Think! It's not illegal yet." According to Shannon, that one was meant for Shawn.

The last one says "What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all about?"

Which, of course, comes from a Jimmy Buffet song. But I think that it's clever and ironic and all those things I live for, and I wanted it on my fridge.

This morning, I learned that one possible origin of the term "hokey-pokey" and the dance of the same name is linked to Roman Catholic mass. If "hokey-pokey" is derived from "hocus pocus", which may be derived from the Latin "hoc est enim corpus meum", meaning "this is my body", and the motions of the dance are an imitation of a priest performing the Eucharistic ritual (which, incidentally, was performed with the priest's back to the congregation), then the Hokey Pokey as we know it is an imitation (however comical and proletarian) of the most important ritual in the Church.

So, seriously--maybe the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about!