Set a goal to get four things done…and achieved it. Maybe that’s the secret…settle on a few things that need to get done and leave the rest for later, instead of freaking out over how much one has to do and not getting anything done…
That was a piece of cake! I think I’m getting smarter! (falls into a hole)
(ok, not yet)
Listened today to some radio station I’d taped before coming here…country music…How am I supposed to convince my French students that we’re not a bunch of gun-toting wackos when one of the first commercials I come across is for this gun shop in Griffin? I mean seriously, I may be a little sheltered, but the only gun I’ve ever, ever seen in person that wasn’t carried by a policeman, secret service agent or member of the military is hanging over the door to our kitchen- our antique civil war rifle that hasn’t worked much less been shot for at least a hundred years. And don’t all the Swiss have guns? Or am I falling prey to stereotypes now? If by the wildest chance my officially Swiss, organ-playing friend is out there reading, any input on the state of firearms in Switzerland?
I think there are things about the US that people just love to hate. Like Bush. One of the first classes I observed was given a copy of that picture that circulated around on the internet…I’m sure everyone’s seen it. The one with Bush and son proudly holding up the big fish with the flooded ruins of New Orleans in the background. And then we spent forty-five minutes discussing how it portrayed a president who cared more about amusing himself than the suffering of his people. And granted, maybe it’s his poor speaking skills, but he doesn’t sound exactly sincere when he talks about such things…
and yet…it was news to them that Bush isn’t solely responsible for the state of New Orleans, that the federal government’s role is to support the State Government in an emergency (that is right, isn’t it? Or do they take over if the state government can’t fulfill it’s obligation), that outlaws were shooting at rescue workers, that red cross trucks were waiting to deliver supplies to the superdome but the governor wouldn’t let them go, fearing that it would only encourage its occupants to stay longer and be raped and mugged and beaten up some more… (or do I have this wrong? That’s the impression I got of the situation…) So yeah…everyone loves to blame Bush for things, and yes, he’s commited a great number of serious bêtises, but the situation in New Orleans is not exclusively his fault…
Anyway…
Discovered something that has me even more confused about France…the laic school system that won’t let me as a teacher wear a crucifix to contaminate the minds of their youth and won’t let any of its students wear headscarves or yarmulkes gave me this date book of sorts to record abscences in… it looks destined for students, like everyone gets a copy the first day or something… and I’m flipping through it, hoping it lists Easter as I’d kinda like to know when it is…and I notice there is a different name next to each date on each little section of the calendar… and I’m wondering if Damien and Côme and Marguerite were all chosen somehow out of the school district and they get their birthday listed in the official district schedule or something…but when I run across "Thérèse de L’E.- J." and "Francois d’Assise," not to mention "La Sainte Croix" and "Nativité de N.D," I’m deeply confused. It seems as if the French have these mixed relations with religion, particularly Catholicism. One one hand, they had a bloody revolution a few centuries ago overthrowing the current authority, notably the church, and they cradled philosophers like Sartre and Foucault. On the other hand, they can’t throw out their Catholic roots without denying a culture over a thousand years in the making. Like I have a lot of errands to run and business to do, but forget about doing it on Tuesday…everything’s closed on All Saint’s Day.
Enough for tonight…Sorry I’m always complaining…I’ll have nice things to write soon, I’m sure.
A Happy Feast day of Ste. Narcisse to all.