January 23, 2003
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Though it's lazy, I'm posting here an excerpt from a comment gone amok on another site.
The background is that THYRIO has been toting a jeep full of garbage around for the past two days. Day one was an 'oopsie, forgot the dump is closed on Weds', but day two found no one minding the dump--likely due to the recent snowfall.
Why post my comment here? Because I went off into tangent-land with it (so sorry, T) and it really should have had it's home here and not crowding up the poor man's comment section...
Frankly, I find that this is indicative of my overall style (and why this blogging thing held such appeal)...Rarely do I spring tothe keyboard with burgeoning newborn ideas just waiting to be written. I tend to the Socratic rather than expositive modes of expression...Which is why a mis-adventure in garbage sends me careening off to wax nostalgic and philosophic about social mores in France....
The comment post
"Well, I hope that you neatly stacked your garbage for later disposal by the absentee dump-minder. That's not snarky--just pragmatic.
My DH points at this type of behavior on my part and 'blames' my time living in France (y'know, amidst all those French people...). He may be right.
The French are simultaneously the most rule-bound and yet rule-breaking society around. Everyone "knows the rules" and for the most part adheres to them quite strictly...So, the off-shoot of this is that if one is witnessed breaking the rules, conventional wisdom says and popular custom dictates that "there must be a very good reason"...and people simply accomodate that transgression with little or no comment/protest.
Example: In France, you stand in line. Period. For just about everything. Now, in the States, if someone were to cut in line, at the least they'd be in for some serious sniping--worst, they'd be ejected, pelted with small furry animals and left for dead at the back of the queue. In France, if someone cuts in line, they just...err..cut. Eyebrows will be quirked and mouths will be moued in that way only the French can pull off...but not a feather will ruffle. The working assumption is that the cutter has a pressing concern of such great (and private) urgency, that of course they must go first--and to stop them and ask what that reason might be could impede the cutter even further...simply unconscionable. Same goes with; smoking in a 'no smoking' area, traffic rules, any dog-related transgression, shopping ettiquette, and things like leaving your garbage neatly piled in front of a 'not supposed to be closed' dump.
The French believe in rules wholeheartedly and also believe in not following them when you shouldn't. Vive La France.
This got long. Dammit. I'm working on that yakity-yak trait...Promise!"
(edited for typo)
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