The other day, I held the clicker, flipping through the channels to find some acceptable noise while I worked in the kitchen. There she was. Jeannie in her pinkish outfit, blinking her eyes and bobbing her pony-tailed head, turning Major Nelson’s living room into a swinging pad. I Dream of Jeannie, of course.
Jeannie, played by Barbara Eden, was a hit show in the United States between 1965 and 1970. All 139 episodes worth.
Coincidentally, today is Barbara Eden’s birthday. She was born on August 23, 1931, in Tucson, Arizona. She is now 90 years old.
Her birth name was Barbara Jean Morehead. She was a long-time actress and singer, appearing in movies and TV throughout her life.
Growing up, the family was poor, and her mother would entertain the kids by singing. It caught on with little Barbara Jean. She first performed in public singing in their church choir. Then, as a teen, she started singing for nightclub bands for $10 a night.
Eden began her television career as a semi-regular on The Johnny Carson Show in 1955. From there, she was on all sorts of TV shows, from The Andy Griffith Show to I Love Lucy.
Nearly a decade later, in 1978, she starred in the feature film Harper Valley PTA.
But we know her best as Jeannie, the genie.
Most people, at least those of us in the western hemisphere, associate genies with lamps. Rub on the lamp and get those three wishes.
This is largely thanks to a few pieces of popular media. That would obviously include I Dream of Jeannie. But also the stories of Aladdin, especially of the Disney variety.
But in fact, if we look at them historically, genies are actually supernatural creatures. Their origins go back about 5,000 years.
They have been described in many ways — as “malevolent tricksters or benevolent spirits,” and everything in between. And yes. Some people today believe genies are real, in some facet or another.
They come from a long line of mythical creatures in the region of the Middle East. This all started around 3 B.C. In fact, the Arabic word for a genie is a jinn. Or djinn.
So what is a Jinn, or the real Genie, aka Jeannie? Jinn are intelligent, free-willed creatures who live close to nature. There are endowed with all sorts of magical powers.
I guess, as, with anyone else in the world, we have good Jinn and bad Jinn. Apparently, some of them help people and obey the law. But others are on the evil side, tricking humans and causing all sorts of mayhem and mischief.
And according to ancient writings, Jinn were supposedly created by God out of the “fire of a scorching wind” or “smokeless flame.” In that way, they are “airy” and “whispy” like smoke. It allows them to be hazy and changeable. Like, “poof.” Of course, this is in direct contrast with us humans. God is said to have sculpted us from mud and clay. That makes us rigid, solid, and not so changeable or mysterious. A genie is a mysterious wind. We are old baked clumps of clay. Or so the stories go.
Then there are the accounts of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and The Forty Thieves. And who could forget the 12th-century story of the Queen of Sheba, who was said to have a human father and jinn mother?
But it was mostly Aladdin who brought us the “notion” that the genie comes in a lamp, or bottle, trapped inside. And once freed, the three wishes come to the grantor of the genie’s freedom.
Personally, I’m a little leery of the genie. Every time I’ve found some jewel-encrusted golden lamp lying around, I just move it out of the way with my toe and travel on my way.
I think finding the four-leaf clover or dropping the coin in the fountain is more my speed. Safer than the genie, I’d say.
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“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
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“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”
― George Orwell, 1984
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“A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.”
— Frederick the Great
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Don’t rub the lamp, I’d say.
