Palomas

Do you guys know how I hate birds? Well, I do. They are unpredictable, sometimes they fly at your head and they could poop on you at any moment. I'm currently living in a city, so naturally, there are pigeons everywhere. Today I found myself under a tree next to a pigeon, fully anticipating it flying into my face. But that didn't happen.

I actually haven't had any bad experiences with the pigeons here besides fearing their wings and their poop. So this post is actually going to be about linguistics. That's right. We're solving a linguistic mystery.

At orientation, Sally and I weren't sure what the word for pigeon was in Spanish. We decided to start calling them "las ratas del cielo" or "the rats of the sky" because they're gross and they are all over the place and the males just hop around with their feathers all puffed out, trying to jump on the females. It's just gross.

Fast forward to last week. In my church, there is a broken window way up high in the sanctuary. On Saturday, during Bible study, we kept hearing noises. Carlos went out to check on things and said it was just the palomas. I have always translated paloma as "dove" but I just checked Word Reference and it can be translated as pigeon when you are in the city. So, mystery solved, right? Wrong. Mystery just started.

I read on Word Reference that many other languages do not distinguish between dove and pigeon. So when speakers of these languages learn English, they have to learn the difference between dove and pigeon. They have to learn that pigeons are the rats of the sky and doves are beautiful, white symbols of peace. Can we talk about how symbols can be crazy different between cultures now?!

On Sunday during the sermon, Iván mentioned the part of Jesus' baptism where the Holy Spirit descends as a dove and blesses Jesus. Only he used the word, paloma, obviously, which I had just learned means pigeon. I looked up at the pigeons sitting on the broken window, and was reminded of the times God is okay with getting dirty. When God plants a garden. When God puts Abraham to sleep and walks between some bloody carcasses. When God becomes wind in a desert. When God comes into the world as a baby placed in a feeding trough. When God chooses to wash the feet of God's friends.

The linguistic mystery here can be solved by looking at etymology and finding that pigeon comes from French and dove comes from German. Since English just picks up words from all over, we get two totally different words for two very similar birds. I think the symbolic mystery here is a lot more profound, and a lot more beautiful. Given the prominence of liberation theology in Latin America, which says that God sides with those who suffer, it only makes sense that God would take the form of a humble pigeon.

So this week, I'm learning to embrace las ratas del cielo and remember that God is present in all things, both the doves and the pigeons.