Friday, January 29, 2010

Musings on the 29th.

I am a master of filling my time with good things that ought to be done rather than the things I need to do. I am proficiently skilled at skirting uncomfortable issues rather than addressing them, and can aptly procrastinate even the things I want to accomplish. For example, instead of writing my papers, reading for class, or even replying to the emails in my inbox, I've been enjoying our brief beautiful weather and accomplishing house-keeping errands. (shrugs) C'est la vie. Here are some musings from today (really, they're not about the 29th as much as they merely happen to be on the 29th).

"It is, I think, an indisputable fact that Americans are, as Americans, the most self-concious people in the world, and the most addicted to the belief that the other nations of the world are in a conspiracy to under value them." -Henry James 


 Perhaps, back in Henry James' day, this was more true. I would argue that now that America has become a leading nation, we don't suffer from this lack of self-awareness. We know what it is to be an American and we're darn proud of it.  Rather, it seems to me to be an apt description of the Canadian search for national identity. Interesting to consider, anyway. 


On a rather different note, I just learned the origin of the word "sabotage". Apparently, factory workers in the Netherlands, afraid of what the industrial revolution would bring about, took to hurling their wooden shoes (sabot)  into the machines so they wouldn't lose their jobs. Unfortunately, this did lead to them losing their jobs, but it certainly makes for an interesting story. 


(Where was I going with all this? Oh, right! Nowhere. How refreshing.)

No comments: