Let them eat cake (day 19)

Apparently Marie Antoinette said "let them eat cake" (actually "qu'ils mangent de la brioche").  Having heard this expression repeated throughout my life, and having no context to attribute to it, I made up several meanings and contexts over the years.   The one that stuck the most is the one where Marie Antoinette being a selfish narcissist decides that she will give everyone cake so that they will shut up, so busy will they be in their newly found comforts.    Of course I know now the actual context of the phrase and in that story she is still a selfish narcissist but was giving no one cake.

I wonder about massive protests in the past and in the present but in other places.  Why don't we massively protest in Canada and the US?   What would it take?  How uncomfortable would we need to be? We are eating cake so the idea of protesting and possibly losing the cake is not so appealing I suppose.  We could also just be asleep from too much cake.  So when something bad happens like, oh I don't know, the failing of a flawed financial system, we just sit there dumbfounded unable to grasp that things won't just go back to normal soon, and that taxpayer money is being used to bailout a system that made billions for some and nothing for most.  It's really unbelievable and, when you're full of cake, it's even harder to get up and do something about it.  I remember the moment when the bailout was rejected ('blamed' on a speech by Nancy Pelosi).  That was amazing.  A grandstand moment if I ever saw one.   But short-lived and at my most cynical, orchestrated to appease and scare at the same time.  That was the last of the influence of 'main street'.   Long live main street.   

The other-worldliness of large broken and oppressive systems is daunting.  I wonder what it might have felt like for Puerto Ricans to rise up for self-determination.  I wonder about the feminist movement and their struggle for the vote.  I wonder about African Americans rising up for equal rights and freedom.  I can watch countless YouTube videos and movies but I still don't know what it might feel like.  I've never been in it.   My peer group likes cake for now.

A song and performance for this post.

Between nesting and jumping (day 15)

Salman Rushdie said in an interview on CBC that everyone has a wish for home and a wish for adventure.   Steve and I both laughed at the description he gave (if you've never heard SR speak, search for it, it's a treat...one of my favourite is this one).    Part of the reason we laughed is because we are currently in a rental apartment that needs work and we're not sure the owners will do the work...so..we hover between staying and leaving in a maddening dance of pros and cons. 

Several times in my life I've had the urge to throw it all away and just do something completely different.  I've done some pretty crazy turns but never truly just stopped and jumped without a net.   I'm either a sucker for continuity or just plain scared that things will turn out badly and I'll end up on the street.   It's probably enlightening to ask someone what their alternate reality is.  What jump would they make if risk or time/money was not an issue?

I think I would open up a little breakfast shop/restaurant in a little place like Nelson, BC.  I love breakfast.  Truly love it.  I have a blueberry (these days it's concord grapes instead, yum!) pancake every morning with maple syrup and homemade fruit sauces.   I think breakfast should be celebrated and lingered over.   If you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, get into a routine of an amazing home-cooked breakfast.  It's something to look forward to, and I swear you will feel better for the rest of the day.

So here is the paradox.  My crazy jump into something completely different would lead me to the mother of all nests: the home-cooked breakfast shop.  I picture it small, warm and full of great smells and great people that I know and love.   So I guess like many people I have a secret longing for the simple life, the one where you're so happy and comfortable you don't want to jump anywhere.   I'm pretty sure that things would turn out differently if I actually did it.  It may just be a case of wherever you go, there you are.   I'd probably get there and miss the world of technology and digital media terribly.   I'd probably start to hate breakfast.  And then I'd look around for the next jump out of there.