Acedia

Acedia = apathy or boredom

This will be a pretty biased entry, but that's what blogs are for.

The French and the Americans accuse each other of acedia regarding different things.













The French often are disgusted by Americans' acedia about foreign affairs. We have a reputation of pushing our military weight around when it suits us and ignoring countries that desperately need our help. I was in France in 2003 and I had to explain to many, many people that, no, I didn't think the U.S. should have invaded Iraq, that yes, I did think our president was a pushy moron, and that yah, it probably would have been better to spend all of that military money stopping the tribal genocide in Africa and feeding starving children. I tried my best to show that not all Americans were apathetic about the rest of the world, but my French acquaintances still used me as a focal point for their frustrations toward the West. Their argument was that if Americans could get off their couch-potato bottoms, shed some of their acedia, and challenge the president, then maybe we could enact change. I didn't have an answer for them there.

So how do Americans accuse the French of acedia with all of their strikes, rallies, social unrest, and heated debates? Religion. When I started to look for a church to attend in Pau in 2003, I was surprised at how far I had to walk from my host home to find a protestant church. In NW Arkansas, there's just about one on every corner. I was also surprised at the selection. My options as a Christian were to attend the Catholic church or the one Protestant church. Baptist? Methodist? Pentacostal? According to Pau, France, they are all just Protestant. Once I got inside, I was surprised again to find that the one Protestant church in town was not even full on Sunday mornings, and they only had one service! What, I wondered, could have driven this country, with all of its beautiful cathedrals, hundreds of relics, and a strong history of evangelism, what could have driven them away from their religious heritage? The more I studied history, the more I learned about the religious wars where people murdered one another for minor doctrinal differences, about the Crusades where "Christian knights" killed people in their own countries if they didn't convert, and then about "la laïcité" which forbids public school students to show outward signs of their religion, and in effect, even forbids them to talk or write about their religion in school. In trying to solve one problem, the French went to the other extreme. This page gives more (also biased) specifics: "(A) poll indicated that only 10 percent of the French population attends church regularly and of the 51 percent who call themselves Catholics, only half said they believed in God. Those that don’t believe in God said they called themselves Catholic because it was a family tradition."

We all have acedia about something. When is it good? When is it bad? I welcome your comments.

Purfle

I took a costume design class a few years back where we had to design fancy 18th century clothing for bourgeois English characters. In England, it was fashionable at this time to follow french style, so I had the opportunity to copy/reinvent some 18th century French costumes. Many of my renderings had gold brocade purfling the skirt hems.


Why did English bourgeois look to the French for fashion inspiration? Throughout history, the nations of Europe were more or less equally stylish until French fashion began to spring ahead of the English during the 17th century when England was understandably preoccupied with mass plagues and fires. This was also the time of the French Sun King Louis XIV whose clothing was lavishly embellished from head to toe. In the photo to the left, you'll note that his collar is purfled with an elaborate gold rope, his hands are purfled with copious lace, and even the velvet rug hanging in the background is purfled with gold brocade and huge tassels.

Early in the 18th century, Louis XV's mistress, Madame Pompidou (below), was quite the trend-setter. She would purfle her neckline with lace and purfle her hems with flowers.














So you see, the French may or may not have been the original purflers, but they certainly perfected the art of purfling!

For more on France's influence on fashion, click here.

Whipsaw

Quebec

Some quick Wikifacts:

"Nationalism plays a large role in the politics of Quebec, and all three major provincial political parties have sought greater autonomy for Quebec and recognition of its unique status. Sovereigntist governments have held referendums on independence in 1980 and 1995. In 2006, the Canadian House of Commons passed a symbolic motion recognizing the "Québécois as a nation within a united Canada."

"The Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada[16] to Britain after the Seven Years' War."

When I worked at Walmart as technical support (using the term loosely) to French-speaking provinces in Canada, it became clear to me that the province of Quebec has a "whipsaw" kind of identity. The Quebecois are clearly Canadian (hehe) because of their geographic location, but their cultural identity is French because that's the language and culture their ancestors brought with them when they settled there near the banks of the Saint Lawrence River.

So are they Canadian? That depends on who you ask. According to Mike at the Walmart CA Home Office, "They should just speak English because this is Canada!" It turns out a lot of Canadians think it's silly that they need an interpreter for business relations within their own country.

Are they French? Well...when I met some Quebecois while in France, they didn't sound French to me, and the French people kind of mocked them (which wasn't very nice). France seems a popular place for Quebecois to visit, but it seems that the French have little interest in returning the sentiments.

(Forgive the generalizations. I'm sure there are many exceptions.)

So, I think Quebec is a cultural whipsaw. They want to be French. They are Canadian. What is their cultural identity?