Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys
Sage advice from a famous Polish proverb.
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and founder of BestPsychicDirectory.com. You’re reading his articles on Bob Olson Connect.
My mother’s family is Polish, so I heard specific phrases as a boy that still bounce around in my mind. My Aunt Stella was famous for saying, “Swinia nie człowiek,” which sounded to me like ”Shween on your whoop.” What was funnier than how it sounded was the translation, which was ”Pig, not a man.” She was often referring to her husband, Uncle Les, my father, Bob, her son, Eddie, or her daughter’s husband, Chet. Apparently, from what I gathered from Aunt Stella, all men were sloppy like pigs. It might seem like a harsh thing to tell a boy, but I found it somewhat relieving. If all men are sloppy, I thought, I don’t feel so bad about my sloppiness.
My mother’s and Aunt Stella’s parents emigrated from Poland, so Polish was still spoken in the family. Their parents died by the time my mother was thirteen, so I never met them. However, my grandfather and grandmother both came through in readings with mediums.
Another famous Polish proverb, ”Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy,” translates to “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” It can be taken in different ways, but I prefer to think of this as a reminder not to get pulled into someone else’s nonsensical drama.