So, it's about 1:30p on a Wednesday and my co-workers and I were just discussing the benefits to a European lifestyle.
We just had lunch, salad and bread, and chocolate cake. And now we need a nap. A siesta. It's about 70 degrees and cloudy outside. Why can't I be outside?!
It makes me remember my high school French teacher, Madame Paquette. The best thing about Madame Paquette, ("She's actually French? Thank God" says, my French-Canadian mom) is that she supported the European lifestyle and would tell us stories about how the French lived. She was also a bit eccentric, but so what! At least she wasn't a robot.
As a high school student, I couldn't appreciate the freedom of their lifestyle. But now that I've been working in 'corporate' for more than six years, where the hell is my free time?
What is wrong with us? Is it our Puritan history that makes us so oppressed? What's so great about capitalism? Do we need all of this CRAP!
SUVs, tanning beds, Styrofoam, box shopping malls (we all like the familiar over the unique don't we!)
Last night, I smelled smoke outside, and I thought, "If the house burns down, grab Dorie and the back-up drive." The dog is our child and the computer houses the majority of our photos over the years, and that's all I'd want to save. The rest is just crap!
If we had the opportunity to live in Hawaii in a shack or RV, I'd take it. Sell all of the crap, suitcase of clothes, and gone! Tell all the family, "Bring your own towel and pillow, come on over."
What about the 4-day work week? Let's mimic Utah's example. (well this aspect of Utah) I mean, don't most of us work at least 10 hrs a day anyway? When you factor in emails and phone calls - DAMN!
And joy of joys, our dirty cars wouldn't be polluting as much, we wouldn't have all of those office lights on, and you have less sick days.
So, how do insert the European lifestyle into our American ways?
I think Wikihow has a decent article with tips! WIKI WHAT? WIKI THAT'S HOW!
They even give you ideas for hygiene and fashion. Dig it.
Another young lady gives us tips on how to live like a European in the suburbs of America.
My life partner, hunny bunny, and I make attempts to run or walk daily, be outdoors and sunbathe, get out of the house, and recently we removed so much red meat from our diet.
One of the reasons I'm rejecting our current American "GO GO GO" attitude is probably due to my incessant road rage. It's not as if I'm raging for no good reason, these people are truly crazy out there.
I confronted the latest offending person, which has always been a fantasy. It went well.
But at least I didn't go with my initial reaction to drag his wife out the car by her hair and beat her face against the hood of their speedy, red BMW. Cut me off? Sure...
And I looked up that night, "Sorry about that one God, but he deserved it. Hope I'm not so angry next time..."
Leads me to my point- Why do we have to be in such a hurry?
Just try and enjoy everything. Be leisurely with your tasks. I like getting my car washed. It makes me feel happy and bubbly. I like lonely shopping. Reading my book. Lying in my under-roos. So freeing.
Even washing the dishes during the weekend mornings while I'm waiting for the coffee to be done makes me cozy. (I have a window, so naturally, it's easier.)
So, take a stretch and make time some free-time. Do whatever. Just do something else.
I don't know if I should tell you this...but Mme. Paquette wasn't actually French...just by marriage.
ReplyDeleteJill, I'm trying to do my part to slow down and enjoy the view. I've decided to cut down on pollution by using my old fashion push blade mower, changed my light bulbs to CFLs, and refusing to leave my house for work. I sit around my Koi pond in my fluffy white robe, sippin' coffee, trying to figure out how a country with 1/4th the population of China can spit out just as much CO2. What is a single American doing, buying, using that tosses the same amount of co2 into the air that it takes 4.3 Chinese to do? Huh?
ReplyDeleteSO maybe instead of 4/10s we should just all work from home (take our cars off the congested filthy roads), use our computers like we're really doing at work anyway (Facebook, Blogs, & eBay). It'll cut down on the desire to 'have' what Fred has (since you can't see Fred pull into the parking lot with his BMW anymore), and by some bizarre twist of fate we might finally actually learn our neighbor's name (Blake and Tiffany are on my left and Jahyda and Javier are on my right) and maybe just maybe we could SAVE THE WORLD...satirical laugh... AH HA HA HA !
Jason, damn it! You hurt me. But the name was the most important. And the fact that we had to ask to go to the bathroom in French.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember we had to use 'salle de bains' or 'W.C.' because she thought 'la toilet' was disgusting and made people picture you going on the toilet.