I think a lot early in the morning. Especially when I don't have the luxury of being able to slowly and naturally ease my way out of the sack. Like every day I work. I bolt out of bed still half asleep like most of God's children SHOULD be at or before 5 AM, and have some really furious action in my head. It could be residual dream state so I'm not sure about the quality of the thoughts until I have a coffee and a shower and am able to evaluate them without the cobwebs of sleep skewing my perception. You know how you can have a dream in which you have this earth-shaking idea or invent a fantastic new device or hear a joke that while you are asleep seems like it's the most hilarious thing you've ever heard, then you awake, possibly laughing, jot it down and return to the land of slumber from whence it came. The next day you read that hastily jotted joke or that idea with all of your faculties fully functioning and it's an absolute dud! Ever happen to you? That happens to me a lot.
During my commute to work I am usually showered and my caffeine thirst is sufficiently slaked but I'm not convinced I fully wake up until I do my first patrol or hand out my first parking pass of the day and am forced to slam myself into responsibility mode. Then I just think about work usually. It is for this reason that this blog is often filled with contemplations originating on a bus or the C-train. Today's post will be one of those.
I was riding the C-train and 4 guys dressed in orange coveralls and work boots splattered with dried mud from previous days on the job got on. They were chatting away. I am almost certain that none of them knew the person sitting beside me. Then the person sitting beside me sneezed. Immediately one of the coverallers leans down, (because they were standing and the guy beside me was sitting), and says, "Bless you!" Boy that got the old wheels a-turning and the gears a-grinding in my head! What is this compulsion for people to bless other people after a sneeze? I remember the first thing I thought of was my grade school teacher, Mr. Ottawell, explaining that in the olden days people thought a sneeze was an evil spirit escaping or that after a sneeze you were vulnerable to evil spirits getting IN. Either way it required a kindly blessing. It was just common courtesy to gird up one's loins with truth, slap on the breastplate of righteousness, arm oneself with the Word and slay that evil sneeze demon as a solid Christian soldier. Even for a total stranger. That's what got me thinking. I thought, "What if this guy who just sneezed was a Satanist? Or agnostic, atheist, some non-Christian religion, or what have you?" Mr. Coverall was forcing his faith on someone who just might not want it! Why, in Canada he may well have been cited on the spot for cultural or religious imposition and forced to attend publically funded sensitivity training for a few months. I then began picturing this coveraller as the skinny priest from the Exorcist flinging holy water on the guy beside me and hollering, "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELLS YOU! THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELLS YOU!" And the guy beside me smokily melting like the Wicked Witch of the West screaming, "OOOOOHH NOOOOOO!" I actually chuckled at myself a bit, trying my best to hide it from my fellow commuters. I chuckle both at the spectacle I had conjured up in my head and at the fact that so much of what goes on in there is directly linked to some movie or another. The power of entertainment!
The guy beside me didn't thank the blesser. This, I have found, can upset a sneezer. Have you ever had someone around you sneeze and then get all snotty, pardon that intentionally placed pun, and say, "Well? Isn't anyone going to say 'Bless you?'" I have. For all we know Mr. Coverall may be rewarded in Heaven for his act of punicharity. But he got no gratitude from the guy beside me! And this is flu season! For all we know he could have filled our car with millions of H1N1 germs and the magnanimity of the person who actually BLESSED him for doing so went unacknowledged. The nerve!
Then I started thinking of other bodily expulsions we don't get blessed for. When we burp or fart we may not be blasting out anything as dangerous as flu germs but the gas can be quite unpleasant. So we excuse ourselves as if to say, "Sorry for polluting the air we share." Why don't we say that after we sneeze? I guess we sometimes do, but not nearly as often and it occurred to me that sneeze germs warrant more apology than a few moments of burp or fart vapour. And I wonder why people in the olden days didn't believe a burp gave just as much opportunity for an evil spirit to invade the belcher's body. I guess I can understand the fart on this point because if I were a spirit, evil or not, I think I too would choose my aperture of entry carefully.
Then I thought of cultures all over the world. The sneeze blessing is not as uncommon as one might think. In my youth when I lived next door to our Russian Babooshka and Dyedooshka I learned that after a sneeze they said something. It was, "Bud zdorov." This means, "Be healthy." The Romans said, "Salve," which means, "Good health to you." This could be taken as a kind of blessing or it could be, in my mind, a more appropriate order for the person to take better care of him/herself and stop polluting everyone's air with germs. I guess that might depend on the delivery. Pretty much the same in German, "gesundheit" means "health." Loads of people with no German heritage at all say that. Evidently, from my internet research, this has been going on for thousands of years! Romans used to say, "Jupiter preserve you." Jupiter is Zeus to the Greeks. I wonder if the Greeks said, "Zeus preserve you." I don't know but reportedly the Greeks DID say, "Long life," after a sneeze. That's similar to the Chinese who say, "Bai sui," when children sneeze. That means, "May you live 100 years."
If you ask me when a person burps or farts we should be saying this stuff about health and living long lives. I know holding in burps and farts is unhealthy. We've all been in public places, at the office, at a hockey game, in elevators, at church, holding our gases. How many dates have we been on having just eaten a meal that is turning into gas, desperately needing to get rid of some of that gas but politely, maybe even painfully, holding it in to avoid the embarrassment of blasting a fart in front of that special someone who you earnestly want to believe you don't do such hideous things? You also want her/him to believe other totally false things about you too like you are always pulling out chairs, opening doors, paying the check, wearing your good underwear, smelling of lavender, and just being extra polite. But that's dating. And job interviewing. Which really, let's face it, are the same thing. I think if I were interviewing a job candidate and he or she stood up, lifted a leg like Bruce Lee and cracked a loud, noxious fart, I would say two things to her/him: "Good health," because that IS good for the person's health and I want employees who are health conscious because they won't be calling in sick as much and they will work for me for much longer, and, "You're HIRED!" We are taking years off our lives holding in farts and burps, folks! If we could learn to just let these natural body functions fly, maybe our culture would be just a little bit more honest. We'd certainly be more healthy!
But back to the sneeze. I have heard it said that holding one in is also unhealthy. In fact some people believe if you do so, your heart stops. I don't think that's true but it really is a tough thing to do! So let it out. Good health. Live 100 years. That makes a bit more sense when your think of it that way.
What may not make so much sense, (and this was all stuff I thought about on about 10 or 15 minutes of my morning C-train ride, mind you), is the idea of the evil spirits. I doubt there are many people left today who actually believe that, though the institution lives on, but I started thinking about myself and my sneezing habits. I have eyes that are not very good at what they are supposed to be doing and are very sensitive to light. Though I am an organ donor, I doubt there's gonna be a line-up of people who want my eyes when I'm freshly deceased. Almost every time I leave a building and walk into bright sunlight I will sneeze. So I got to thinking. Light. We have heard Jesus called the light of the world. In fact I'm pretty sure he said that himself along with, "Whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness." Jews light candles during their Feast of Tabernacles. The epiphany that brings one to ultimate understanding and a state of oneness with everything in Buddhist and Taoist philosophy is often called, "Enlightenment." Light is just associated with God and good and darkness is associated with evil. So why is it that light makes me sneeze so often and opens me up to the ravages of evil spirits? That doesn't make sense, does it? When it's dark I rarely sneeze. So why don't people say, "May you walk in darkness," after a sneeze. It would be healthier, good for longevity and it would limit the openings for evil spirits to pass in and out of the transoms of our open mouths.
So there you have it. It would make so much more sense, for ALL reasons, if after a sneeze we wished the sneezer a healthy, lengthy, germ-free journey in darkness. I'm going to start saying that. You don't have to, but I think I will. Somebody sneeze around me, please! I want to try this out!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
The Great Wal of Mart
I saw an old Chinese guy on the bus yesterday wearing a poppy. I wasn't all that clear on the role of China in WWII or how they might have had some impact on making Canada what she is today. What I found out, and this is a very general summation of some of the events of WWII, the war helped the Chinese Communist party. You see, at the time of the war Chinese Communists lead by Mao, were battling with Chiang Kai Shek and the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party, who were in favour of something called a "New Life Movement" for China. This was a sort of combination of Confucian ideals, Christianity, Nationalism and Authoritarianism. Nobody really knows if this could have made China into a better place than it is today but it is tough to imagine any ruling party that could have made them any worse. However, judging from the period in Taiwan known as "White Terror" when Chiang Kai Shek's Kuomintang ruled Taiwan with and iron fist persecuting and executing people who were believed to be threats to its power, it just might have done the unthinkable and created something worse in China than what we have today. It lasted from 1949 to 1987 and was the longest period of martial law ever until the Syrian situation recently broke the inauspicious record. Inside Taiwan members of intellectual organizations for "re-emancipation" were roundly imprisoned, tortured or put to death for the threats they posed to the ruling Kuomintang. Much like Tibetan Buddhism and Falun Gong in Communist China. It should be noted that in the 1920's the Kuomintang persecuted Buddhists too so, as per my opinion of most opposition parties in most countries of the world, it's possible that the two factions were not fighting over who could make China better, rather who would win the spoils that come with the privilege of making it worse.
At any rate, Japan invaded China in 1937 and the two warring factions within China agreed to a sort of co-operative war against the invading Japanese. What ended up happening is the Kuomintang took the bulk of the burden, wearing themselves down in number and supplies while the Chinese Communist forces largely sat waiting in the wings, strengthening their forces with an eye toward winning the civil war. It worked. In 1946 the civil war resumed and the CCP defeated the Chinese Nationalists by 1949. This is part of why the world has had Communist China ruled by the mighty bastion of evil known as the Chinese Communist Party ever since.
So, the old Chinese guy wearing the poppy: Was it appropriate? I guess like is the case with so many of life's most important questions, the answer is probably, "It depends." Maybe the guy had relatives who were persecuted by Kuomintang forces and was happy that WWII was a factor in their eventual demise. I don't know. I don't even know if I should care. As long as he donated a decent amount to purchase the poppy, a salut. The observance of Remembrance Day is in honour of the sacrifices made by the soldiers to make Canada a better place. And he lives here now so his life was directly affected by those who fought. So it's right for him to wear the poppy. I guess...
But in the grand scheme of things, his native country, (and I'm not making the silly mistake of assuming because he's Chinese, he supports the actions of his government and his country), figures very largely in the deterioration of Canada into a country not very much like that for which our soldiers were fighting. So maybe he is wearing the poppy to show solidarity with his adopted country and as a statement AGAINST China. It depends... a powerful statement.
What the heck am I talking about? Aren't we supposed to show appreciation for the actions of the soldiers and the freedoms we enjoy because of them at this time of year? Au contraire, mes amis. I think we are supposed to honour our fighting forces and the great sacrifices everybody at the time were making for our country and maybe try our best to do what we can to make it into what they wanted, and let's face it, what almost all of US living today want as well. That is NOT what we have in Canada today. Oh we are closer than lots of countries and I am thankful for that, but it is my belief that we are moving farther and farther away and it all ties into the perversion of democracy and capitalism, corporate mentality, banks, the U.S. and inevitably, China. So if you wear a poppy it is your responsibility, in my mind, to do whatever you can about getting Canada back on the right path.
First let's explore the wrong path we are on. In past posts, even from years ago, I have been warning the oh-so-gullible politicians in Canada against making deals with China, promising trade with the expectations that there will be social and trade reform in the country because history has shown, China lies. It also has shown that they think anyone engaging in business deals based on such pie-in-the-sky promises are fools. In fact NOT lying in business is the most foolish concept of all! Has China improved conditions for workers in their country? Have they obeyed international manufacturing practices? Have they lived up to safety regulations that other nations expected them to? If you watch the documentary called, "Death By China," the answers to all these questions is no. In fact they have gone backwards!
Canada being on China's list of preferred trading partners, I think everybody in this country should see that documentary and do what we can to make things better. For some reason blogger won't let me post links any more. But the movie is on Netflix if you want to watch the whole thing. I'd recommend it. Here are some interesting things the documentary shows. And I'm just cherry picking here, there are all kinds of facts and figures that I am not including here.
"People's Republic of China." Stop saying that! It's not the people's and it's not a republic. It's still treating workers as slaves. If you try to unionize for wages that might get you out of abject poverty, you are thrown in jail. If you don't make your quota in your 16-hour day, you could be thrown in jail or maybe you just don't eat. The laws of China governing safety in the workplace and manufacturing codes and workers' rights are not obeyed. All of these things are what ATTRACT businesses to China. Along with illegal subsidies paid to manufacturers who build companies there and currency manipulation, it makes for a virtual Mecca for manufacturing and corporate greed. And, hey, that's just business! That's the explanation we get from companies like Wal-Mart and Apple. It's not up to THEM to change those things, it's up to them to make their stakeholders more money.
It is stated in the documentary that 91% of Wal-Mart's products originate in China. 2 years before the doc. was made Wal-Mart spent 50 billion in China. If they were a country that would rank The Great Wal of Mart as China's 4th largest trading partner.
And when we hear corporations explaining the mass exodus to China saying things like, "I can't compete," don't feel sorry for them. What that means is NOT what we think. It's corporate-speak. Like when they made 40 billion two years ago and only 35 billion this year, they "LOST" 5 billion. Corporate-speak. "I can't compete," does not mean that things produced in China will cost less in the countries where they are eventually sold. The prices will be similar, or maybe even MORE expensive! All it means is the CEO will have a smaller paycheck, the owner will make less profit or the shareholders will receive fewer dividends. Take Apple for example. It is a microcosm of the cause of financial inequities in countries like Canada and the U.S. Everything Apple is made in China. Does that make it cheaper to produce? Hell yeah! Does that drive the price down? Hell no! Apple has always been, and continues to be more expensive! All that means that the big wigs and shareholders make obscene profits to which they inexplicably believe they are ENTITLED!
Here is the problem! Aye, there's the rub! How do we convince people to be satisfied with reasonable profits for their businesses? Well that's as easy as convincing China to have reasonable working conditions in their factories! It won't happen with a bunch of suits sucking back sushi and sake and shaking hands on the promises of fair play. It requires some strictly enforced international trade rules and reform in the countries who do not abide by them. Who does that fall to? Me? You? Nope, it's supposed to be the job of the government officials that represent our respective countries. You know the ones who regularly accept lobbying funds and campaign contributions and the like from private corporations. Or if their corporations don't make them, the CEO's will make them privately. Or their wives. Or their lawyers. They have been finding loopholes in the laws for years.
We could all agree to boycott products from Wal-Mart or Apple or any of the MANY companies who take advantage of the horrible conditions in China, but things are SO out of hand that we would find this to be a much harder thing to do than expected. One lady in the movie tried to find a microwave that was not made in China and just couldn't. And I'm sorry but I don't believe the people who are suffering most should be the people who have to do without, or pay higher prices for products in the attempt to right this global wrong. I believe the people who have been making these obscene profits should be forced by competent labour law and business law enforcement to right these wrongs that have bolstered their offshore banks books lo these many years. The enforcement should be done by government and this should be what we DEMAND from our government.
I can't stand the way Canadian politicians prattle on about human rights and proper business practices with the same tongues they have up the asses of the Chinese businessmen who are the worst offenders! And I know it's exactly the same in the States where they are, what 17 trillion dollars in debt to them? And I hate the cavalier irresponsibility of the corporations that has become an accepted excuse for the atrocities they make profit from! "It's just business." That's just not good enough! They too need to be held accountable and they have shown no ability to rehabilitate at our polite requests for them to do so. So it's time to get tough.
The best example in Canada I can think of is all these oil pipelines. You've seen the publically funded commercials all over the TV here about how we will protect the fish and nature Canadians love so dearly. What a crock of shit! While telling us this the government of Canada has been cutting back on oil spill experts and companies. More oil to spill and less people to clean it up. The bottom line is there should be no pipelines at all! We are only doing the exact same thing as the American manufacturers in "Death By China." We are outsourcing jobs and refineries to the country where it can be done the cheapest while endangering our own country with oil spills that WILL inevitably happen! Refine it here in Canada. Transport the safer and more expensive oil to China. THAT'S the sort of thing the rest of the world, and most particularly Canada is too "nice" to do. The Chinese see it a different way. We are all too STUPID to do this. And they're laughing their way to world domination. This is not conspiracy theory, this is happening and it's gotta stop.
Leastaways, that's what I reckon.
At any rate, Japan invaded China in 1937 and the two warring factions within China agreed to a sort of co-operative war against the invading Japanese. What ended up happening is the Kuomintang took the bulk of the burden, wearing themselves down in number and supplies while the Chinese Communist forces largely sat waiting in the wings, strengthening their forces with an eye toward winning the civil war. It worked. In 1946 the civil war resumed and the CCP defeated the Chinese Nationalists by 1949. This is part of why the world has had Communist China ruled by the mighty bastion of evil known as the Chinese Communist Party ever since.
So, the old Chinese guy wearing the poppy: Was it appropriate? I guess like is the case with so many of life's most important questions, the answer is probably, "It depends." Maybe the guy had relatives who were persecuted by Kuomintang forces and was happy that WWII was a factor in their eventual demise. I don't know. I don't even know if I should care. As long as he donated a decent amount to purchase the poppy, a salut. The observance of Remembrance Day is in honour of the sacrifices made by the soldiers to make Canada a better place. And he lives here now so his life was directly affected by those who fought. So it's right for him to wear the poppy. I guess...
But in the grand scheme of things, his native country, (and I'm not making the silly mistake of assuming because he's Chinese, he supports the actions of his government and his country), figures very largely in the deterioration of Canada into a country not very much like that for which our soldiers were fighting. So maybe he is wearing the poppy to show solidarity with his adopted country and as a statement AGAINST China. It depends... a powerful statement.
What the heck am I talking about? Aren't we supposed to show appreciation for the actions of the soldiers and the freedoms we enjoy because of them at this time of year? Au contraire, mes amis. I think we are supposed to honour our fighting forces and the great sacrifices everybody at the time were making for our country and maybe try our best to do what we can to make it into what they wanted, and let's face it, what almost all of US living today want as well. That is NOT what we have in Canada today. Oh we are closer than lots of countries and I am thankful for that, but it is my belief that we are moving farther and farther away and it all ties into the perversion of democracy and capitalism, corporate mentality, banks, the U.S. and inevitably, China. So if you wear a poppy it is your responsibility, in my mind, to do whatever you can about getting Canada back on the right path.
First let's explore the wrong path we are on. In past posts, even from years ago, I have been warning the oh-so-gullible politicians in Canada against making deals with China, promising trade with the expectations that there will be social and trade reform in the country because history has shown, China lies. It also has shown that they think anyone engaging in business deals based on such pie-in-the-sky promises are fools. In fact NOT lying in business is the most foolish concept of all! Has China improved conditions for workers in their country? Have they obeyed international manufacturing practices? Have they lived up to safety regulations that other nations expected them to? If you watch the documentary called, "Death By China," the answers to all these questions is no. In fact they have gone backwards!
Canada being on China's list of preferred trading partners, I think everybody in this country should see that documentary and do what we can to make things better. For some reason blogger won't let me post links any more. But the movie is on Netflix if you want to watch the whole thing. I'd recommend it. Here are some interesting things the documentary shows. And I'm just cherry picking here, there are all kinds of facts and figures that I am not including here.
"People's Republic of China." Stop saying that! It's not the people's and it's not a republic. It's still treating workers as slaves. If you try to unionize for wages that might get you out of abject poverty, you are thrown in jail. If you don't make your quota in your 16-hour day, you could be thrown in jail or maybe you just don't eat. The laws of China governing safety in the workplace and manufacturing codes and workers' rights are not obeyed. All of these things are what ATTRACT businesses to China. Along with illegal subsidies paid to manufacturers who build companies there and currency manipulation, it makes for a virtual Mecca for manufacturing and corporate greed. And, hey, that's just business! That's the explanation we get from companies like Wal-Mart and Apple. It's not up to THEM to change those things, it's up to them to make their stakeholders more money.
It is stated in the documentary that 91% of Wal-Mart's products originate in China. 2 years before the doc. was made Wal-Mart spent 50 billion in China. If they were a country that would rank The Great Wal of Mart as China's 4th largest trading partner.
And when we hear corporations explaining the mass exodus to China saying things like, "I can't compete," don't feel sorry for them. What that means is NOT what we think. It's corporate-speak. Like when they made 40 billion two years ago and only 35 billion this year, they "LOST" 5 billion. Corporate-speak. "I can't compete," does not mean that things produced in China will cost less in the countries where they are eventually sold. The prices will be similar, or maybe even MORE expensive! All it means is the CEO will have a smaller paycheck, the owner will make less profit or the shareholders will receive fewer dividends. Take Apple for example. It is a microcosm of the cause of financial inequities in countries like Canada and the U.S. Everything Apple is made in China. Does that make it cheaper to produce? Hell yeah! Does that drive the price down? Hell no! Apple has always been, and continues to be more expensive! All that means that the big wigs and shareholders make obscene profits to which they inexplicably believe they are ENTITLED!
Here is the problem! Aye, there's the rub! How do we convince people to be satisfied with reasonable profits for their businesses? Well that's as easy as convincing China to have reasonable working conditions in their factories! It won't happen with a bunch of suits sucking back sushi and sake and shaking hands on the promises of fair play. It requires some strictly enforced international trade rules and reform in the countries who do not abide by them. Who does that fall to? Me? You? Nope, it's supposed to be the job of the government officials that represent our respective countries. You know the ones who regularly accept lobbying funds and campaign contributions and the like from private corporations. Or if their corporations don't make them, the CEO's will make them privately. Or their wives. Or their lawyers. They have been finding loopholes in the laws for years.
We could all agree to boycott products from Wal-Mart or Apple or any of the MANY companies who take advantage of the horrible conditions in China, but things are SO out of hand that we would find this to be a much harder thing to do than expected. One lady in the movie tried to find a microwave that was not made in China and just couldn't. And I'm sorry but I don't believe the people who are suffering most should be the people who have to do without, or pay higher prices for products in the attempt to right this global wrong. I believe the people who have been making these obscene profits should be forced by competent labour law and business law enforcement to right these wrongs that have bolstered their offshore banks books lo these many years. The enforcement should be done by government and this should be what we DEMAND from our government.
I can't stand the way Canadian politicians prattle on about human rights and proper business practices with the same tongues they have up the asses of the Chinese businessmen who are the worst offenders! And I know it's exactly the same in the States where they are, what 17 trillion dollars in debt to them? And I hate the cavalier irresponsibility of the corporations that has become an accepted excuse for the atrocities they make profit from! "It's just business." That's just not good enough! They too need to be held accountable and they have shown no ability to rehabilitate at our polite requests for them to do so. So it's time to get tough.
The best example in Canada I can think of is all these oil pipelines. You've seen the publically funded commercials all over the TV here about how we will protect the fish and nature Canadians love so dearly. What a crock of shit! While telling us this the government of Canada has been cutting back on oil spill experts and companies. More oil to spill and less people to clean it up. The bottom line is there should be no pipelines at all! We are only doing the exact same thing as the American manufacturers in "Death By China." We are outsourcing jobs and refineries to the country where it can be done the cheapest while endangering our own country with oil spills that WILL inevitably happen! Refine it here in Canada. Transport the safer and more expensive oil to China. THAT'S the sort of thing the rest of the world, and most particularly Canada is too "nice" to do. The Chinese see it a different way. We are all too STUPID to do this. And they're laughing their way to world domination. This is not conspiracy theory, this is happening and it's gotta stop.
Leastaways, that's what I reckon.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
I don't have the right word...
I remember one time I was playing Euchre, a card game, with family. The best hand you can possibly get is called a "lay-down lone hand." It's a hand that you can just lay down and nobody can possibly beat any of your cards. The perfect hand is when you can do this after going alone, without your partner. It's worth 4 points. It doesn't have to be both jacks with the ace, king and queen of trump but if it is, it is the ultimate hand. I HAD this hand. Everybody passed and trump was turned down. All I had to do when the call got to me was call trump and alone and lay it down. BOOM! 4 points! In a game that goes up to 10 this is the sweetest feeling you can have! So the call GOT to me, I was ready to add some cocky flourish to my lay down and maybe some trash talk when all of a sudden the phone rings. My Mom got up to answer it. She was on the phone, as is her way, for quite a while before returning to the game. It knocked the fun right out of the experience! Oh it was still pretty sweet, but nowhere near the blast it would have been without the wait.
I have needed a word for this feeling a few times in life. One time in Korea I had a girlfriend nicknamed Jeannie. I think her name was Jin Hee. I can't remember exactly because our relationship didn't last for a long time and this story I'm about to tell may have been a harbinger of the doom it was to suffer. She told me she wasn't a fan of flowers. Unless they were hand picked and given to her. I can't remember what day it was or even what season but it was her birthday and it was either spring or fall. It was probably spring because I remember the days being fairly warm. Warm enough to go out, buy some flowers and climb to the top of a little mountain in Yong In where I lived and plant them on the side of the path. In a secret spot that no passer by would notice. I then convinced Jeannie to come visit me in Yong In. She lived in Seoul. The day I planted the flowers and bought her a nice gift and planned an evening with wine, Jeannie and song, (at a local singing room), was quite warm. Warm enough to plant the flowers and know they wouldn't freeze. Jeannie agreed to spend her birthday with me in Yong In. The plan was coming together! The NEXT day, her birthday, was not so warm. In fact it was unseasonably cold. I wondered if my flowers had frozen overnight. But Jeannie was coming some time around noon so I thought they'd be okay.
I met her at the bus depot and as soon as I saw her I lost a bit of the excitement you get when you are about to do something nice for someone. She was wearing nowhere NEAR enough clothing for the weather. I remember the first thing I said was something like, "Is the weather different in Seoul?" Seoul being a 40-minute trip from Yong In, of course it wouldn't be. She just said she was freezing and wanted to get to someplace warm. So I had to do all I could to convince her to go on a hike up Mt. Nogobong, (it's no more than a 20-minute hike). I told her there was a birthday surprise up there for her. I practically had to drag her. But she was not wearing the clothes, or the footwear for a hike. In the end she agreed to wait for me at the bottom while I sprinted up, grabbed the flowers out of the ground, which were frosty and wilted but still not UNbeautiful, ran down and handed them to her with the announcement, "I hand-picked these for you at the top of the mountain." I think she said something like, "Thanks, let's get inside." Not the response I was planning to get out of her. And not the feeling of having done something nice, and if I do say so myself, quite romantic, for a gal I liked a lot. Heightened expectations completely shot down by circumstances.
Is there a word for this? I know the Germans are pretty good at words that describe specific feelings like this. They have a word, "schadenfreude," that means the feeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail. The natives of Tierra del Fuego have a very specific word, "mamihlapinatapai," which means to look at each other, each hoping the other will offer to do something which both parties much desire done but which neither is willing to do. Maybe the natives of Tierra del Fuego often bring their cheap friends out to dinner and have this feeling when the check comes. I dunno.
Thursday my brother, Rob had some tickets to the Kiss concert Friday night that he couldn't use. I love Kiss and I knew my brother Jeff liked them too so I offered to take them off Rob's hands. He came to my work and I bought them from him. I texted Jeff and told him he should make me supper that night because I had a surprise for him. I suggested he cook up some cabbage rolls I had in the freezer along with some perogies. He found the cabbage rolls, rotten, in our freezer that is not quite cold enough. So he said he'd make some Hamburger Helper. Meh. It's not cabbage rolls and perogies but at least I'd have supper waiting for me when I got home. Something I haven't had since I can't remember.
7:30 rolls around. I worked from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM that day and was pretty hungry at the end of my shift. However, my relief was nowhere to be seen. We tried and tried to call him but to no avail. Then every person who has ever worked my site was called and either could not be contacted or could not do the shift. By 9:00 it was decided that the mobile guard would sit in for me and I could go home. Jeff had texted me at around 7 telling me supper was ready. It was re-heated Hamburger Helper when I got home. I guess it's better than re-heated cabbage rolls and perogies but geez... And the thrill of handing over a ticket to Kiss just wasn't what I had been looking forward to all day.
Well the concert was spectacular! Kiss put on a show that I don't think many other bands could match. Paul Stanley's voice was cracking a lot and he couldn't sing the songs that well but it was okay. They had just finished their Monster tour and his voice was tired. Calgary was tacked onto the end of the tour because on July 13th, the original Calgary date for Kiss, half the Saddledome was under water with the great floods of '13. So crackly voice or no, Kiss was much appreciated! The plan was to go to the pub just around the corner from my place after the concert. They have a Kiss greatest hits album on their jukebox and I was going to plug the whole thing and have a few beers. I only had one at the concert. So we get to Bonasara's and I show the waitress my Kiss tour T shirt and say, "Guess where WE just came from!" "Oh the Kiss concert. Nice." The place was too busy for her to ask how it was or what songs they played or have the conversation with me I'd hoped for. Also when I got up to put some money in the juke box, I noticed a guy playing the guitar in the bar. He was good but he was no Kiss. It was local musician open mike night. The next few acts were nowhere near as good as the guitar guy and the music was not what I wanted to hear. Then the guy who was sitting next to Jeff at the bar tries to pick a fight with him. "You think you're better than me?" "You're not better than me!" Then he looks at ME. I hadn't said a word to him! He goes, "You too! Have some respect!" He was told to go home. Obviously had too much to drink. So we had a burger and a beer and left. I don't know what was in those burgers but I just came home and hit the hay. I was tired! Hardly "rocking and rolling all night and partying ev-er-ry day!"
Today I wake up at some hour and go to check my phone to see exactly what hour it is, and it's gone. I have looked everywhere but can't find it. I was so busy trying to make sure my very expensive Kiss concert shirts got home safely, I guess I forgot about my phone. On the bright side, I had wanted to take pictures and vids during the concert by my cam phone was no good. Every pic was blurry and in the darkened stadium it was useless for pics or vids. So at least I got THAT goin' for me. Wonder what the word for that feeling is...
So, I think I'm going to make up a few words here. When you try to do something nice for someone and are subverted by circumstances I'm going to call that "punicharity." No good deed goes unpunished. And when you try to find something good from a disaster like, "I lost my legs in Nam but just look at the musculature in my arms!" "At least re-heated Hamburger Helper is better than re-heated cabbage rolls and perogies!" "The flowers weren't UNpretty!" "Well at least I didn't lose too many great pics of the concert along with that crappy cam phone!" I'll call that, "negapositivity." And for those of you who will read this, laugh at my misfortune, (and that's okay. I don't mind.), and take my negapositivity with a grain of salt when I say that the Kiss concert was a total blast even though I can't post any of the pics I took of it here, I'll call you punicharitynegapositivityschadenfreuders.
But anyhoo, the Kiss concert was a total blast! I just wish I could post some of the pics I took on my phone cam here! Who knows, maybe it'll turn up. <---- What about that right there? What's the word? Thinking wishfully in the face of great odds against, hmmmm... "Canuckfanity?"
I have needed a word for this feeling a few times in life. One time in Korea I had a girlfriend nicknamed Jeannie. I think her name was Jin Hee. I can't remember exactly because our relationship didn't last for a long time and this story I'm about to tell may have been a harbinger of the doom it was to suffer. She told me she wasn't a fan of flowers. Unless they were hand picked and given to her. I can't remember what day it was or even what season but it was her birthday and it was either spring or fall. It was probably spring because I remember the days being fairly warm. Warm enough to go out, buy some flowers and climb to the top of a little mountain in Yong In where I lived and plant them on the side of the path. In a secret spot that no passer by would notice. I then convinced Jeannie to come visit me in Yong In. She lived in Seoul. The day I planted the flowers and bought her a nice gift and planned an evening with wine, Jeannie and song, (at a local singing room), was quite warm. Warm enough to plant the flowers and know they wouldn't freeze. Jeannie agreed to spend her birthday with me in Yong In. The plan was coming together! The NEXT day, her birthday, was not so warm. In fact it was unseasonably cold. I wondered if my flowers had frozen overnight. But Jeannie was coming some time around noon so I thought they'd be okay.
I met her at the bus depot and as soon as I saw her I lost a bit of the excitement you get when you are about to do something nice for someone. She was wearing nowhere NEAR enough clothing for the weather. I remember the first thing I said was something like, "Is the weather different in Seoul?" Seoul being a 40-minute trip from Yong In, of course it wouldn't be. She just said she was freezing and wanted to get to someplace warm. So I had to do all I could to convince her to go on a hike up Mt. Nogobong, (it's no more than a 20-minute hike). I told her there was a birthday surprise up there for her. I practically had to drag her. But she was not wearing the clothes, or the footwear for a hike. In the end she agreed to wait for me at the bottom while I sprinted up, grabbed the flowers out of the ground, which were frosty and wilted but still not UNbeautiful, ran down and handed them to her with the announcement, "I hand-picked these for you at the top of the mountain." I think she said something like, "Thanks, let's get inside." Not the response I was planning to get out of her. And not the feeling of having done something nice, and if I do say so myself, quite romantic, for a gal I liked a lot. Heightened expectations completely shot down by circumstances.
Is there a word for this? I know the Germans are pretty good at words that describe specific feelings like this. They have a word, "schadenfreude," that means the feeling of joy or pleasure when one sees another fail. The natives of Tierra del Fuego have a very specific word, "mamihlapinatapai," which means to look at each other, each hoping the other will offer to do something which both parties much desire done but which neither is willing to do. Maybe the natives of Tierra del Fuego often bring their cheap friends out to dinner and have this feeling when the check comes. I dunno.
Thursday my brother, Rob had some tickets to the Kiss concert Friday night that he couldn't use. I love Kiss and I knew my brother Jeff liked them too so I offered to take them off Rob's hands. He came to my work and I bought them from him. I texted Jeff and told him he should make me supper that night because I had a surprise for him. I suggested he cook up some cabbage rolls I had in the freezer along with some perogies. He found the cabbage rolls, rotten, in our freezer that is not quite cold enough. So he said he'd make some Hamburger Helper. Meh. It's not cabbage rolls and perogies but at least I'd have supper waiting for me when I got home. Something I haven't had since I can't remember.
7:30 rolls around. I worked from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM that day and was pretty hungry at the end of my shift. However, my relief was nowhere to be seen. We tried and tried to call him but to no avail. Then every person who has ever worked my site was called and either could not be contacted or could not do the shift. By 9:00 it was decided that the mobile guard would sit in for me and I could go home. Jeff had texted me at around 7 telling me supper was ready. It was re-heated Hamburger Helper when I got home. I guess it's better than re-heated cabbage rolls and perogies but geez... And the thrill of handing over a ticket to Kiss just wasn't what I had been looking forward to all day.
Well the concert was spectacular! Kiss put on a show that I don't think many other bands could match. Paul Stanley's voice was cracking a lot and he couldn't sing the songs that well but it was okay. They had just finished their Monster tour and his voice was tired. Calgary was tacked onto the end of the tour because on July 13th, the original Calgary date for Kiss, half the Saddledome was under water with the great floods of '13. So crackly voice or no, Kiss was much appreciated! The plan was to go to the pub just around the corner from my place after the concert. They have a Kiss greatest hits album on their jukebox and I was going to plug the whole thing and have a few beers. I only had one at the concert. So we get to Bonasara's and I show the waitress my Kiss tour T shirt and say, "Guess where WE just came from!" "Oh the Kiss concert. Nice." The place was too busy for her to ask how it was or what songs they played or have the conversation with me I'd hoped for. Also when I got up to put some money in the juke box, I noticed a guy playing the guitar in the bar. He was good but he was no Kiss. It was local musician open mike night. The next few acts were nowhere near as good as the guitar guy and the music was not what I wanted to hear. Then the guy who was sitting next to Jeff at the bar tries to pick a fight with him. "You think you're better than me?" "You're not better than me!" Then he looks at ME. I hadn't said a word to him! He goes, "You too! Have some respect!" He was told to go home. Obviously had too much to drink. So we had a burger and a beer and left. I don't know what was in those burgers but I just came home and hit the hay. I was tired! Hardly "rocking and rolling all night and partying ev-er-ry day!"
Today I wake up at some hour and go to check my phone to see exactly what hour it is, and it's gone. I have looked everywhere but can't find it. I was so busy trying to make sure my very expensive Kiss concert shirts got home safely, I guess I forgot about my phone. On the bright side, I had wanted to take pictures and vids during the concert by my cam phone was no good. Every pic was blurry and in the darkened stadium it was useless for pics or vids. So at least I got THAT goin' for me. Wonder what the word for that feeling is...
So, I think I'm going to make up a few words here. When you try to do something nice for someone and are subverted by circumstances I'm going to call that "punicharity." No good deed goes unpunished. And when you try to find something good from a disaster like, "I lost my legs in Nam but just look at the musculature in my arms!" "At least re-heated Hamburger Helper is better than re-heated cabbage rolls and perogies!" "The flowers weren't UNpretty!" "Well at least I didn't lose too many great pics of the concert along with that crappy cam phone!" I'll call that, "negapositivity." And for those of you who will read this, laugh at my misfortune, (and that's okay. I don't mind.), and take my negapositivity with a grain of salt when I say that the Kiss concert was a total blast even though I can't post any of the pics I took of it here, I'll call you punicharitynegapositivityschadenfreuders.
But anyhoo, the Kiss concert was a total blast! I just wish I could post some of the pics I took on my phone cam here! Who knows, maybe it'll turn up. <---- What about that right there? What's the word? Thinking wishfully in the face of great odds against, hmmmm... "Canuckfanity?"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)