Here I write this on the day 0f 3/26/2023… sitting in a chair in the good ole USA… Home of the free… Free? Hmm, I don’t know how well that is going. The land of “FREE SPEACH” is oozing over with a thing called cancel culture. Basically, this “cancel culture” has turned into a serious addiction for some. They seem to look for things to get angry with and claim it must be stopped, censored, changed, rewritten, forgotten, etc. It is really weird to me as an artist who thinks all expression that does not directly harm a person or their belongings should be allowed. I also think history should not be forgotten or rewritten.
Then we have the order of importance we should attach to things. How important is a subject? Well, if you are a lover of cancel culture it is not about fighting demons or true evils. It is about finding things to cancel. It is about patting yourself on the back for fighting for what you can claim a good cause. Maybe you are a warrior of words on the internet and wish to do good with your commentary on the slave trade surrounding the sugar trade. Maybe you are wanting to go after child trafficking and work to push politicians to get off their asses on that. Maybe you are sick of how the lithium mining is done and by whom… damage and squalor, people without clean water working 15-hour days. Ah, a warrior to help battle homelessness in wealthy countries? Maybe going after the opiate problem? Anti-war? Nah… if you are a woke cancel culture fan you are probably going after words, art, the personal expression you don’t agree with, labels on consumer products that you assume may offend someone you don’t know… and, umm, maybe houseplants?
I just did this quickie tattoo of a houseplant. This is one of the most common houseplants in the Americas. It is The Tradescantia Zebrina. This plant is more commonly called a Wandering Jew.
So… the debate has begun. Is it cool to call it a Wandering Jew plant? If it is not, then what shall we call it? Is it racist or antisemitic to call it a Wandering Jew? Spiderwort is a name some use. Probably offensive to spiders. Not many know it as Spiderwort though.
Anyways, the theme now popular amongst woke cancel culture types is that this name came to popularity via the Nazi folk who pushed it via propaganda and it was to make people hate Jews because of a Jew who was cursed to wander as an immortal forever after some bad verbal behavior. = Jews bad! “YAWN” Jesus was a Jew. John who baptized him was a Jew. One bad vs multiple good Jews in a made-up story equals Jews bad? Bad propaganda people in charge of that one.
Besides the fact that there are people on this planet that think the name of this plant is the big huge problem they need to invest their time in to save the world, that is wrong. The name Wandering Jew for this plant pre-dates the Nazi crud by a long time. Good 150 years or so is the time I’m talking about.
The origin of the meaning attached to the name is debatable, but all the woke folk are way off. They keep writing that their reasons are fact and we’ll have our next generation quoting it as fact though. Re-write history to fit a narrative.
So what are the most likely origins of this plant’s common name?
The most likely one is it is attached to the story of a mythical man (previously mentioned) invented 800 years ago that became a folk tale about a guy who got cursed because he teased Jesus while he carried his cross to his own crucifixion. That story btw has changed about a zillion times to fit the times, but it is just a random folk tale with not much to back it up. It is great fuel for artists, so it has been rewritten and re-told uncountable times. It has been used in songs, and poems uncountable times. It is referenced in books, movies, and plays… visual artists have explored it repeatedly. It is a story to play with because it has ZERO historical attachment besides its use in art.
This plant (which is native to the Americas) was named in Europe Tradescantia after John Tradescant who brought it there, and zebrina from the stripes on a zebra, due to its striped leaves that “wander,” from the main plant like crazy. Tradescantia zebrina.
The next most plausible origin of the common name for this plant is biblical. It is simply a reference to the Jewish people wandering in the desert for 40 years. If you don’t know that story it isn’t worth me explaining at this time. The moral of that story is basically (for the Jews) that they should have trusted in God in the first place, doubt wasn’t cool.
The next plausible origin is that the name comes from the Jewish people constantly being pushed from their homeland and ruled over for centuries, which in turn made the Jewish people constantly be forced to wander as a people… seeking homes. The plant’s behavior can be used as a simple analogy for the way many saw the behavior of Jewish people cast out into the world as a group. The plant once taken root can thrive, it sends out wandering shoots seeking more places to thrive, but still maintains a connection to the main plant. The Jews in history were often taken in or moved into areas and built communities (taking root) and then people slowly spread from those communities (like the wandering bits of the plant) in hopes of establishing more. The plant outside of America is considered invasive. Many people felt in certain areas and times the Jewish people with growing communities were directly competing or affecting lifestyles in ways they (the original inhabitants) didn’t dig = Invasive.
Most did not think of the plant in any negative way, however, so it rapidly became a beloved houseplant. Both Gentiles and Jewish people liked it and called it a Wandering Jew. When I found out that woke cancel culture knobs were going after this plant I shot a quick cut-and-paste message to a few people I know that happen to be Jewish. It said “Hey, I was wondering your thoughts on the houseplant called a wandering jew. Is the name good or bad? Don’t look stuff up, just your quick thoughts. Only two of them even knew what a Wandering Jew was. One sent a picture of a huge one in their house. None thought it anti-semantic or anything else negative. Of the two who knew what it was, neither had any clue it was ever considered bad, and neither had a clue of any other name for it.
A very small sampling indeed, but nonetheless a sampling.
In conclusion… good or bad – don’t cancel things. They are what they are. We learn from both good and bad experiences and actions. We do not need to erase them or rewrite our pasts. Also, if the name of a plant peeves you that much, then you’ve got a pretty sweet life. STFU and find a new hobby.
Side note: the tattoo took about an hour-ish to do. Me writing this babble took about the same. I was however able to eat donuts, drink coffee, and listen to a podcast on quantum spin liquid while writing this, and I was not able to do so while tattooing. 🙂
The podcast just ended so I am now done babbling.
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