I know nowadays we can generally look up almost anything we can think to ask, and failing that, ask others online, but some of my favorite memories are of just making up total nonsense to kill time and “explain” the origins of things.
Today I was wondering about the salt contents of the oceans, and while there’s a bunch of brief videos that lightly explain it (something to do with deep sea magma vents and an exchange of minerals from deep in the earth as the water passes through these subterranean channels), it got me to thinking about what might’ve been a little more fun or might have been some people’s myths.
The super simple silly story I came up with as an alternative was some ancient giants cracking wise and laughing so hard they cried and their tears formed the oceans.
So what are some stories you’ve come up with of either the natural or incredibly mundane for how things came to be or were made?
When I was small and the loud storms scared me my mother told me that thunder was the man on the moon either bowling or throwing things down the stairs. It wasnt presented as fact, but it was a funny little thought to distract from the scary storms.
I was also told there was a tiny man living in the fridge who operated the light. All fun and game until your toddler’s letting all the cold air out while they are trying to catch the little man in action.
Oh and the triangle hazard light button in the car was actually the ejector seat button.
Not mine, but when my mother was a little girl she apparently thought that milk came from white cows and chocolate milk came from brown cows. Adorable concept!
All you need for a milkshake is a polite cow to shake hooves with!
The universe has it out for me, specifically.
The concept of ‘karma’ is actually just the ghosts of your dead relatives checking in on you, and showing their pleasure (or displeasure) at your actions. This is why good things happen to bad people, because their dead relatives were probably also shitheads and therefore reward their shit behaviour.
I wish I could remember! My imagination can run wild and I know I made up plenty to make the world make sense, but I can’t seem to remember anything right now :(
Still, I wanted to comment to say this sorta thing always reminds me of the comic Calvin and Hobbes - specifically the way Calvin’s dad would explain things to Calvin.
