butterbeep

honi soit qui mal y pense

I love the way language finds its was into cracks and nestles in memory like a spell. My wife Rachel asked me to google honi soit qui mal y pense today. Her father used to say it a lot when she was being selfish or spiteful. She never knew what it meant and grew up thinking everyone said it. Her father, Richard, was a member of the Grenadier Guards at one time and the phrase is their motto. It has a more ancient lineage than that but it always fascinates me how the mind and words work, that Rachel chose today to question the meaning of that phrase that has now been divested of much of its mystique but given an extra charge of clarity and resonance.