…earworm.
An earworm is that snippet of song that persists in your head long after the song has ended. A psychologist may call it perseveration.
I tend to picture this worm as a leech….tenaciously sinking his teeth into those brain synapses and refusing to loosen his grip.
This past Sunday was not only the feast of Christ the King, but also the feast day of the Holy Sovereigns -the commemoration of when King Kamehameha and Queen Emma of Hawaii welcomed the Anglican church to the islands. The Royal Order of Kamehamea was in attendance, and there were special Hawaiian music and hymns.
Sung in Hawaiian.
Our informal collection of ukulele players was asked to play at the service, and we had a few practices. Each night I would lay awake trying to wrap my distinctly NOT Hawaiian tongue around the vowel-laden words.
Henry, local born and with Hawaiian ancestry, gently prodded me to say POmaika’i (blessed), not POImaika’i (not a word but when he pointed out my error we both laughed at the visual of someone in good health (maika’i) scooping up poi with his fingers…).
On Sunday we played. We sang. And on Sunday night I went to bed, hoping that I would now be able to sleep without the tongue-twister “E paʻa ka manaʻo i ka pono i ʻoi aʻe” from the song Ekolu Mea Nui incessantly running thru my brain.
But it did. As did the equally difficult “ʻAʻole aʻe hiki ke kanaka waiwai” from the hymn Kanaka Wai Wai. This morning, after another night of sleep disrupted by earworms….I caved and loaded the Christmas music file onto the computer and started playing, hoping to drown out the endless loop in my head. All 8000 songs.
I hope one doesn’t latch onto me….
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