The house we have stayed at the latter part of the week had a game room in the garage. One of the games was a Skee-Ball machine, where you roll a ball up a ramp, and try to get it in a hole. The whole game seemed like a giant wink at first, honestly, with the idea of a ball entering a hole or passage. The first thing I noticed when I saw the game was that phrase "Keep The Good Times Rollin'". A variation of that phrase - "Let the Good Times Roll" is one that, thanks to Claire and whatever other Daughters were having a party in my head back in 2020, I have strongly associated with the Rose Stone (the Stone that is cut and rolls from the Mountain without hands).
However, earlier this evening I got the idea in my head to look up the meaning of "Skee" in Skee-Ball. What does that word mean? As it turns out, Skee can be just another form of the word Ski - the game was named after ski hills - specifically Ski Jumping, with Skee just a different spelling for Ski.
Jumping is interesting in and of itself, with this ball leaping off a ramp and landing in a hole. Indiana Jones was told to take a "leap" in order to get where he wanted to go. But the wink here is even more direct than that, for two reasons.
First, to ski is the act of gliding on one's feet over snow using long boards that are attached to them. I had just earlier written a quick post about beautiful feet and the act of walking on Water, and here we have a form of transportation that involves feet doing just that, although in this case, of course, the Water is frozen.
Secondly, and related, ski or skee is a reference to the board itself that one does the skiing on. Here is where it gets interesting for me. Etymonline has ski mean simply "Stick of Wood" according to Old Norse and Old English uses. So, if I were to sub that definition in for Skee in the game title, I would get "Stick of Wood - Ball".
Why is that interesting? Well, I have directly linked a Ball or Balls - the Rose and Ithil Stones - as themselves representing Sticks, specifically the Two Sticks from Ezekiel and 2 Nephi 3. And here we have, in the name Skee Ball, a reference to exactly that.
Soccer is just hockey with no sticks.
ReplyDeleteGood point.
ReplyDeleteI guess another difference is soccer is played on "Earth" - solid ground - whereas hockey is, like skiing, played on "Water" using special footwear.