Leap Day-hooray

Leap day is kind of a big deal, right? Comes once every four years, an extra day, pretty awesome. And what do we do? We spend our extra day doing the same old thing--going to work. So, if I become president, I will make leap day a national holiday. And, since Leap day just happens to fall on election year, I will ban all campaigning and political talk on that day. We all deserve a break from that. 

Anyway, happy Leap Day!

American unhyphenated

**Disclaimer: This post contains sweeping generalizations. This post is written from my perspective, which is the only one I have, and it isn't always the best Perspective. The good news is my Perspective always likes to meet new Perspectives and get to know them.  

A couple of weeks ago I attended a performance of cultural dances from all over Latin and Central America and the Pacific Islands. And I loved it--the performers were awesome, the costumes were beautiful, and it was really terrific of them to share their cultural heritage. Because even though they were Americans, they also had this tie to their heritage--Latin American, Native American (from either North or South America), or Maori, or Hawaiian, etc. Which I think is incredibly cool.

But I admit, it also made me a little sad, because I don't have a cool cultural heritage like that. I'm an American, unhyphenated, and we don't have a dance. I sometimes feel a little lost as to what that means. I mean, what is an American? This whole concept is a bit nebulous for me. What are the arts and foods and traditions and customs that have been handed down for generations that make us an identifiable group?

It got me thinking historically, of course, because that's what I do. So, in the beginning of white people in America, we were a lot of different nationalities, and identified with our country of origin. And at some point, we ended up as part of the British empire, and that was our national identity. British. And probably not everyone felt a part of that--I doubt if there is any nation where everyone living in it identifies with that particular national heritage. Especially nowadays. And then the people over here decided they wanted to be their own nation, and it was bye-bye to the British identity and this new idea of American happened, but what was an American? And it seems like for a long time--up to the Civil War--people identified more with their state than as part of a nation.* And I imagine--I have no data to back this up--that there was kind of a push to disconnect from the British heritage. Which makes sense, I get it. It just seems like unhyphenated Americans are really culturally boring. Some days, I feel like my cultural 'American' heritage is 1) always find something new, none of this tradition stuff, and 2) try to get the rest of the world to do the same thing. Spread the tech, spread democracy, make mini-Americas everywhere you go. How boring! How ugly! Ick!

But Hyphenated-Americans (or Adjectival Americans, since we don't use the hyphens so much anymore). Well, I imagine that has its ups and downs too. Along with cultural heritage--any cultural heritage--comes some hard history. It is part of what being human is--we have great capacity for good and for evil, and we (sweeping generalization alert) have all at one time or another done both. But hyphenated Americans seem to me to have a much richer culture to draw on.**

And it's not like ethnic or national heritage is the only source of culture. You can get a cultural identity from lots of places, and I'm thinking most of us do have multiple sources. And maybe it's just me who feels a little deprived because I don't really have a hyphenated American heritage in my life. It's not that I couldn't--after all, plain Americans came from somewhere, and my somewheres include England, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and Scotland, at least. But is English-American a thing? Can it be? And while Irish-American is DEFINITELY a thing, it's not a thing I've been raised in. And I don't really feel like I'm an out and out American, either (For example, I don't own a gun or want to, I don't think we're the most superior place on the globe, and I like people from other countries.) I do have an identity, which I wouldn't trade for all the hyphens you've got.

I'm just saying, sometimes it would be nice to have a dance.

*Of course, that still happens today. I think in some ways, identity is relative. If I'm talking to other Americans, I identify myself with my state. If I'm talking to fellow citizens of my state, I identify by my city. If I'm talking to an international audience, yeah, I'm probably going to call myself American.
**Though this has nothing to do with the paragraph it is linked to above, here's as good as anywhere to insert it. It is possible that this is an insider/outsider thing, and they perceive me the same way I perceive them. And I should also note, it's possible that this happens with Germans and Ugandans and Australians, so I'm not in any way saying unhyphenated Americans have a monopoly. I am just not Ugandan, so I don't know. 

Oh, yeah

I was emailing a friend today and trying to coordinate a long-distance book club of sorts (very small membership--2--and very eclectic topic. Don't feel bad that you weren't invited. You probably aren't interested in Kathleen Roe's book on arrangement and description). We've been trying to set a date for this for quite a while, but coordinating schedules through emails has been tough--apparently we both have lives we are living and it can take a couple of weeks to get to personal emails. And then I realized: I do have a phone. And so does she. And we have each other's phone numbers. I could call. Or text.

Which I used to do, all the time, when we lived in the same city. But for some reason, now that we live in different states and don't see each other face to face, I somehow forgot that there is a thing called the phone. And it exists for a reason. Like, to communicate with people over long distances. Pretty awesome, right?

Yeah.

Who Knew? Take 2

Upon falling into a family history rabbit hole, I learned that once upon a time, there was a proposed state of Franklin. It didn't last, but still. And of course, one link leads to another and I discovered that there is a whole list of proposed-but-failed states. They really should teach this stuff in history.  

Further, did you know there is a thing called Thunder Snow? I experienced it today for the first time in my awareness (who knows, maybe I've experienced it before without knowing). There we were at work, watching this great snowstorm take off, and all of a sudden several nice loud thunder claps and even a flash of lightning (which I didn't catch, but my co-worker did). 

I also learned, from the delightful podcast The Allusionist, that filibuster used to mean freebooter, which referred to pirates in the late 1500s, as you too can learn in this episode. (And freebooter of course made me think of Hello Internet, and to give credit where credit is due and NOT be a freebooter, you can listen to them discuss freebooting here, and in many subsequent podcasts.) I would vote for pirate hat and eye patch, but not the hook, and I'm undecided on the parrot. 

Finally, I learned that my Lotus Elise would be cobalt blue, and I'd stick with the Elise and not go any of the packs--with the Elise you have the option for everything, but with the sports tourer pack or the race tech pack, there are some options you can't have. It's so appropriate that an anglophile such as myself shares a name with a British car. 

Monkey Business

Happy Year of the Monkey, all! Apparently, this is my year!

Yes, I was born in the year of the monkey. But I think that perhaps there was some confusion, because according to the description in an article I read, Monkey people are "lively, quick-witted, curious, innovative, and mischievous". Also, "smart, clever and intelligent, especially in their career and wealth", gentle and honest (which brings an everlasting love life--I'd like to file a complaint because that sure ain't happened for me!), they have an "impetuous temper" (what does that mean?) and are a bit snobbish. Sociable, enthusiastic, self-assured, suspicious, cunning, selfish, arrogant, jealous, playful, jokesters who don't mean any harm, adaptable, charming, and lucky are among the other adjectives used to describe us Monkeys. 

This does not describe me. 

Lively? Nope. Feeling burned out most of the time. 

Quick-witted? Maybe, and possibly smart and all synonyms thereof, depending on how you define them. I'd say "common sense" is more my style than anything else, and half the time I'm not even sure of that. Definitely not smart about money or my career (that one I'm just kind of winging). 

Innovative? Hmmm, not so much. Definitely not in the top 10 words used to describe myself. Curious? Probably, but more breadth-wise than depth-wise. 

Mischievous. Yeah, okay, probably that one. I did steal a car once (I put it back!) and have been known to get up to antics in my day. When I'm not feeling like a zombie from exhaustion and stress. 

Impetuous temper--not sure about the impetuous part, but I do have a temper, although don't we all? Mine is of the sort that flares up quickly for a very brief time, and then I start realizing all of the extenuating factors that explain things away.

Snobbish--well, one of my best friends thought I was a snob, but we realized later it was because I was so shy. 

Sociable--I like people, and I think I'm friendly enough, although probably pretty awkward. Does that count as sociable?

Self-assured? Nope. Huh-uh. Very much not so. 

Suspicious. I think naive is more me. Can you be suspicious and naive at the same time? 

Cunning--I think I could be, but it takes so much energy and that tiny bit of malevolence. I'm too lazy to be cunning.

Enthusiastic--see lively.

Adaptable--I think this is a requirement to survive humanity. Most of us are, but maybe we aren't all as good at it, or as stylish. So I have no idea how I rate. 

Jealous, arrogant, and selfish--I honestly have no idea. I'm assuming I'm not, but maybe people are just to nice to tell me? 

Charming? Ha ha ha ha ha ha! If I weren't feeling so congested and my throat weren't so raw from coughing right now, I would be laughing out loud (I really am sick, by the way). Definitely not charming.

Lucky. What is luck, really? Fortunate, yeah. But not anymore or less than anyone else, on average. No one rubs my head before going into a championship game or anything. But, I don't particularly think about luck, so maybe I am. Couldn't say.

Playful. Well, considering the toy box under my bed, I'll go with yes. What the heck, why not.

Anyway, I think you'll see that I'm lacking quite a few of the characteristics that define people of the Year of the Monkey. Maybe this only works if you are actually Chinese, which would explain my dearth of Monkeyness. Or maybe I'm just an outlier. Or maybe it's a "pick 5" situation, where you don't get them all, you just get to choose from several options? And I'm not saying I want all of them (jealousy? Really? Pass). And I'm not complaining or anything. I just want to know, can I still be a Monkey?

If not, maybe the Dragons will adopt me.

Observations

Observation 1: Sometimes the fastest way to learn something is to mess it up big time. I do this at work about 3 times a week. I make some really dumb, obvious mistake with access or security or something that could cause a huge mess. Fortunately, so far there has been someone there to catch me. But when you mess up big time and realize how close you came, it does stick with you.

Observation 2: Having stuff with no one to share it with you is really lonely. I have all this neat stuff--movies, games, books, a toy box (one must be prepared for visits by the under twelves). Lots of cool, fun things. But sometimes I look at it all and think "what's the point of all this stuff?". Because so many of those things are best when shared.

Observation 3: I'm 99.9999999999999% sure that you can't trace your lineage all the way back to Adam. I had someone tell me she had done her genealogy all the way back to Adam. I just nodded and smiled, but honestly, I don't think it's possible. Because we don't have records that go back that far, and I'm fairly certain even the Bible is missing some essential details. And there are a lot of Adam's descendants that the Bible doesn't follow. Like, most of them. Also, I've played on Family Search, because you can find the best names if you click back through the lines. But there are so many errors--mothers that died five years before their kid was born, fathers who were born after their son, weird jumps in surnames. All of which convinces me that we don't really have the genealogies nailed down too well. Sorry to burst any bubbles.

Observation 4: I need some new ideas, new thoughts, new things to even think about. Lately, it seems I just repeat the same old conversation to different people. How to fix the middle east, politics, race issues, the Gospel versus social trends, income inequality. Ugh, it's getting old. I listen to myself in those conversations and it's so BORING! We need a new topic of conversation, people. So fix your problems so we can move on to something new, alright? Like, which is cooler, pandas or koalas? Who should we let take over the world, Google or Amazon? And why did the chicken cross the road, anyway? Should we allow chickens to cross the road? Do we have enough legislation to protect road-crossing chickens from  danger? These are important questions!