Dispatches

Monday, April 10, 2006

La voix-blog


Remember that old "lesson in positive thinking" blog I wrote a while back? Didn't I decide that disliking strangers for being rude and inconsiderate on public transit and on public sidewalks was a bad idea? It's wrong to resent other people for being pushy and in a rush and generally thoughtless--that was my conclusion. But today, I am tempted to re-think.

I only have to dislike the people who are actually rude and thoughtless, right? I mean, there are plenty of people who are good-humoured and polite and helpful. These people are quite likeable. If I think too positively about the rude and thoughtless people, my whole worldview might get skewed. I might mistakenly train myself to rejoice when others bud in line, or when people leave their bags on empty seats in the subway when there is an elderly man with a cane who has to stand.

Enough of that.

I am still trying to find my blog voice. The other day, I was in a meeting and one of my francophone co-workers said "I can't find my voice today, not in English and not in French." This was her apology for slipping from one language into the other. And telling this anecdote is my way of apologizing for not having found my own fascinating voix-blog. (Apologies to linguists and francophones for totally inventing that word. If anyone can recommend a good online, french-english dictionary that includes up-to-the-minute cyberspace lingo, I'd really appreciate it.)