Reading Notes: Filipino Popular Tales, Part B

I love origin stories so I knew I would love Why the Ocean is Salty! If anyone here is a consistent reader of my blog you probably already know how I love to talk about how unfair humans are to our planet and environment (to the point that I am basically writing by entire storybook on the subject)!  And I think this story was another perfect example of that with the ocean knocking down the salt castle because it was mad with humans meddling in the sea.  I think that another reason why I love origin stories so much is because they personify nature which I think is beautiful. In these origin stories nature has spirit and will to oppose human forces, which is something we unfortunately do not have in the material world. Instead, in the real world we are stripping our planet of its livelihood, and it does not have any means to oppose us. That is probably also why I was so excited about my storybook, it is all about spirits of nature opposing human forces to try and maintain and balance between nature and humans, a balance that we do not have in the real world!  I also thought it was funny how the story was called "Why is the Ocean is Salty." Given the publishing date, it could have only been referring to "salty" as the literal meaning.  However, we have so much new slang now that "salty" in terms of modern slang fits perfectly into this story as well!  The urban dictionary definition of "salty" is to be agitated, annoyed, or upset, which seems to sum up our ocean pretty well! Even if it was not intentional, the title of this story aged well! I really enjoyed the Asia/Africa unit so I'm sad to see these 3 weeks come to an end!

Maine Seascape (1930), Source

Filipino Popular Tales, Why the Ocean is Salty, by Dean S. Fansler (1921).