FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

The closest thing to a sleigh that I could find in my photo album. Photo taken in the Piedmont.

 Bestseller in French language instruction:
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empreinte de pas (soundfile follows...) noun, feminine

    : footprint

Audio File: Listen to my daughter, Jackie, pronounce the French word for footprint: Download Une empreinte de pas . Download Une empreinte de pas
 

A Day in a French Life... by Kristin Espinasse

Good morning, good day, hello and happy holidays! If I am up and chirping (in English...), it is because the sun is shining and the extended French family is arriving and I am about to fire up a new household appliance, one that my husband and children presented me with, just this morning: une yaourtière!

Our family goes through a lot of yogurt (it's a French thing, not a hippy-granola thing—and even if it were a baba cool thing: qu'est-ce que ça vous fait? What's it to you?). It finally occurred to me that we are throwing out over a 1000 plastic yogurt containers each year. With a yogurt maker (which comes with 8 reusable glass jars) we won't have to do that anymore. (Though, one day, we will have to dump the machine itself).

Strange things have been happening this past week and now, this side of forty-one-years-old, I am trying to make up for lost time. I find myself sewing odd garments (using "holey items" from the give-away clothes pile), making home-made notebooks from my children's old cahiers (a chichi store-bought notebook will never again have the same charm!), and trying to erase... erase... erase! the years of "hard living". Only, this time around, not with age-defying creams...

I am trying, finally, to erase my environmental footprint. On second thought, it may be too late to erase it—but it is never too late to lighten it.

Just as I begin to question my sanity (having ripped apart yet another old t-shirt and refashioned it into a new "alternative garment") I stop for a reality check.
"Jackie," I say to my daughter, having had a light and friendly mother-daughter chat about what the age of twelve has in store for her (...), a chat in which I explained all of the options, environmental and not, available to her... "Jackie," I say, "tu dois croire que je suis complètement cinglée!" I look down, at all of the scraps I've stitched together, and realize that I cannot tell my daughter what to do, but I can be an example—however poorly-stitched!

"Of course, you don't have to wear these things. It's just an experiment... perhaps even a foucade. I don't know!"

My daughter picks up one of the items. "This one is well sewn," she says of the odd-shaped "experiment". Her encouragement continues.

"Maman, ce que tu fais--c'est bon. Ce n'est pas "crazy"! Même la femme la plus riche au monde aimerait bien faire ça."

And there, amidst piles of rags, I feel like the richest woman in the world.

*    *    *

This week, it's back to the bercail for us. We'll be taking time away from email and paperwork (apart from the notebook-making kind) to spend time with family and friends.

Thank you for reading this French word journal, whether via email or online. "See you" in 2009. Until then, may we dance forward into the future together... leaving feather-light footprints in our wake.

If you would like to respond to today's story, or share a story of your own, please send your words via the comments box. Thank you!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~French Vocabulary~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
une yaourtière (f) = yogurt maker; un baba cool = hippie; le cahier (m) = notebook; chichi = fussy, formal; tu dois croire que je suis complètement cinglé = you must think I'm completely nuts; une foucade (f) = a passing fancy, whim; Maman, ce que tu fais--c'est bon. Ce n'est pas 'crazy'! Même la femme la plus riche au monde aimerait bien faire ça = Mom, what you're doing is good. It isn't crazy. Even the richest woman in the world would like to do that; le bercail (m) = fold (sheep), home



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shopping~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (French Edition) (Audio CD)

Check out the Salton YM9 1-Quart Yogurt Maker

Learn French in a Hurry: Grasp the Basics of Français Tout De Suite

In Music: Edith Piaf: 30th Anniversaire

Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language

Our friend, témoin, avocat, son's parrain, and more, in today's story. (The cute guy is Matthieu, my husband's godson).

avocat (avo-kah) noun
    1.  avocado
    2.  lawyer, barrister, counsel

The feminine of avocat is "avocate"

Do you have a funny, language-learning (or other) story about an avocado/avocat or lawyer/légume? Wait a minute; an avocado is a fruit... Never mind, share your fruity, law-abiding story with us today--or share any terms and expressions missing from today's edition... in the comments box.

Meantime, here are some related words and expressions:
  avocat du diable = devil's advocate
  avocasserie (f) = pettifoggery (in French "mauvaise chicane d'avocat")
  un avocassier (une avocassière) = un mauvais avocat / a bad lawyer
  un avocaillon (m) = pettifogger, small-town lawyer
  un avocatier = an avocado pear tree

... and this verb, from my grandfather's 1928 Petit Larousse: avocasser: to obscurely exercise the lawyer profession.
 
AUDIO FILE: listen to the French word "avocat" and hear the expressions, above:Download Avocat .  Download Avocat



Jean-Marc and I rolled into town last night, after 2 a.m., having spent "une soirée gastro"* with an old friend and his old potes.* When I say old, I'm referring to the age of a friendship and, bien sûr,* to the number of years that one friend recently tacked on to his birth date: quarante!* Of course forty isn't old, but we won't tell that to the birthday "boy".

Today, meet our friend Fred Chollet and, in the process, "meet" a slew of French vocabulary.

"FRED"

Fred is... Jean-Marc's cher ami d'enfance*

and the parrain* of my son, Max (quelle chance!).*

He is époux* to Corinne Chollet
a lovely woman who makes a mean chocolate cake.

Fred has traits that most of us have to pay for: curls and long lashes.

Fred is a part-time père Noël* and full time avocat.*


He is témoin* to my marriage with Jean-Marc
(a marriage not done on a lark... but, partly, in a park
after Fred got us a special lawyer
...to deal with those illegal alien "sharks"...)

Fred is a proud père* to Clémence and Matthieu a.k.a. "Pioupiou".*

Fred's favorite birthday gift was a giant jar of Nutella, a gift from his girl and from his little boy.

Fred is fiston* to Michel and has a very funny frèrot* named Antoine.

Fred is beau-frère* to Gwen, that funny guy's wife, and oncle* to Alice and Julien.

Fred's mom, Marianne, is also an avocat--and if her eyes were any greener they'd be avocado vert.*

Fred's got an aunt named Michelle (who rivals Tina Turner for legs si belle!).

Fred is a faithful ami* to a former illegal alien (nommé* Kristi).

Fred has law-abiding and not-so-law-abiding friends: like Pinpin and Astrid (law-abiding) and Guillaume & Isilde (not-so-law-abiding mountain folk). He also has formerly not-so-law-abiding friends, who we mentioned earlier.

Fred is the patron* and friend of Ouahida.* You must read about her grandfather sometime.

Voilà! Just a few things about our friend Fred. Here's one more addition:
Joyeux Anniversaire,* Fredo!

photo: Fred with Max, in 2005

FRENCH VOCABULARY
une soirée (f) gastro = a gastronomic evening; un pote (m) = friend, pal; bien sûr = of course; quarante = forty; un ami (une amie) d'enfance = childhood friend; le parrain (m) = godfather; quelle chance! = what luck!; un époux (une épouse) = spouse; le père Noël = Santa Claus, Father Christmas; un avocat (une avocate) = lawyer; le témoin (m) = witness (best man); le père (m) = father; le pioupiou (sounds like "pyou-pyou") = little soldier; le fiston (m) = son, young man; le frèrot (m) = little brother; le beau-frère (m) = brother-in-law; un oncle (m) = uncle; vert (verte) = green; un ami (une amie) = friend; nommé = named; le patron (m) = boss; Ouahida = read a story about Ouahida ; joyeux anniversaire = happy birthday

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shopping~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh, come on, you know you need it: English Grammar for Students of French: The Study Guide for Those Learning French

Learn 101 French Idioms and spice up your vocabulaire français!

In music: C'est L'amour: Romantic French Classics

In DVD: The French Revolution (History Channel Documentary). On July 14, 1789, a mob of angry Parisians stormed the Bastille and seized the King's military stores. A decade of idealism, war, murder, and carnage followed, bringing about the end of feudalism and the rise of equality and a new world
order.

I don't know why I want "straight" to always be the rule when, in fact, I often admire what is off-center. Read on, in today's story column.

That's my daughter, freshly-picked flowers hidden behind her back, trailing behind on a school field trip back in 2005. The goal of the "sortie" was to learn how to use a compass. Looks like our girl will need that information these days, in order to navigate the range of information, sometimes conflicting... that she receives from her trusty parents. Read on, in today's story column.

OUR DOMAINE ROUGE-BLEU wines on your holiday table?... Thank you for thinking of us! To order our wine from the (southern) West Coast, USA, thank you for visiting Paul Marcus Wines. For questions regarding California delivery, please email Paul at [email protected]

Today's Word: EPARGNER
(If this word looks familiar, that's because we featured it last June... New are the verb's conjugations and idioms section... as well as the story!)

épargner (ay-par-nyay) verb

    : to save (up) ; to spare, to be sparing with

[from Frankish "sparanjan", from Germanic "sparōn" (spare, frugal)]

Terms & Expressions: (Don't miss the French idioms section that follows the
sponsors' message, below)

~~~~~~~~~~Audio File and Verb Conjugation~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Listen to Jean-Marc conjugate today's French verb: Download Epargner2 . Download Epargner2
J'épargne, tu épargnes, il/elle épargne, nous épargnons, vous épargnez, ils/elles épargnent => past participle: épargné



When my Francophone daughter asked for help with her French homework, I put aside self-doubt and told myself to give it a try. Usually, it is my husband who helps with le français* (and I, with l'anglais*...), but this time Jean-Marc was occupied with a telephone call. After offering a quick (and distracted...) answer to her question, he sent our daughter on her way.

That's how Jackie ended up in my home office.
"Maman," my eleven-year-old asked, "what does "épargner" mean?"
"Epargner?..."

After an initial hesitation (épargner can mean anything from "to save" to "to spare"), it occurred to me to ask about context.

"Can you give me an example sentence?"
My daughter looked at her workbook and read the assigned question.
"Pourquoi est-ce que Dieu a décidé d'épargner Noé?"

(Whoa!) Once again, I put aside meekness and went to work, translating first the sentence "Why did God decide to spare Noah?" (I'd worry about the answer later). Next, I wondered how best to explain the verb "to spare," an English verb that my kids have probably never heard before. After all, I've never asked them, "Baby, can you spare a dime?" Likewise, they've never heard me ask about a "spare tire", and I don't ever talk about "spare time," for, even here in the countryside (and no matter what outsiders imagine about "the slow and sweet life in France") "spare time" is a luxury that only a Frisbee-chewing French dog can afford. Finally, as I don't like to be sarcastic in speech (i.e.: "Oh, spare me!"), you might say my children have been spared of the verb "épargner".

And so it was now up to me to define a new word, both in English--and in French--for my daughter.

"To spare..." I began, thoughtfully. "You know, to spare... TO... SPARE..." At a loss for a translation, I remembered that Jackie had received some sort of answer from her dad, who had been busy on the phone when he offered it.

"Well, what did your dad say?"
"He said 'épargner' means 'to put money aside'."

Oh, I chuckled, inserting Jean-Marc's distracted answer into the equation: "Why did God 'put money aside' for Noah?"

I imagined God, up there in splendid Heaven, beyond those pricey golden gates, nervously tucking aside his money--savings for a rainy day; speak of rain! What with the predicament that he put Noah in, what good was it to lend the sea-swept survivor cash? What good was currency, to Noah, when the earth, and all that money could buy, was being submerged? Just WHO was Noah going to pay now? The giraffes?

"Pourquoi tu rigoles? Why are you giggling?" my daughter wanted to know, still waiting patiently for the correct definition of épargner.

"Jackie," I said, more to myself that to my daughter, "God doesn't need to put money aside for anybody!" I was going to add (in the spirit that "God is everything" i.e.: grass, the water, a rainbow, forgiveness, hope...): "He IS money!" but that seemed sacrilegious.

All that said, I still couldn't answer my daughter's question and so we set about reading the chapter on Noah's Ark. I admit, it seemed strange to be reading a section of the Bible from a French school textbook--since my daughter attends a public, or laïque* school... and especially since her previous school (also laïque) had sent her home with a swift warning after she wore a cross necklace to class. If ever she returned to school, the principal had warned, wearing that crucifix, the necklace would be confiscated! (See "French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools."*) After my initial shock and confusion, I could begin to understand the unfairness of one child being able to wear a crucifix while another might be prohibited from wearing a religious headscarf.

But back, now, to the biblical flood... I was happy to re-read the story of Noah's Ark in my daughter's (secular?) school book. And, I must say, the text certainly confirmed my beliefs: nowhere in Genesis does God say "Baby, can you spare a dime?"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~References~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
le français (m) = French (language); l'anglais (m) = English (language); laïque = secular (non-religious) state school, secular (education); French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
French Idioms:
  épargner ses forces = to save one's energy
  épargner sur la nourriture = to save on one's food spending
  épargner pour ses vieux jours = to save up for one's old age
  je vous épargne les détails = I'll spare you the details
  épargner quelque chose à quelqu'un = to spare someone something

Do you know of any épargner expressions or examples that you might like to share with fellow readers? Do you have a story about "saving" or "sparing" that you'd like to tell us? Thanks for adding your savoir-faire to the comments section, for all to see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In Gifts~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Book) Corkscrewed: Adventures in the New French Wine Country by Robert Camuto

(Beauty) Cinema, a perfume by Yves Saint Laurent:

(Music) The Chorus -- an outstanding soundtrack

(Bonbons) Normandy Salted Butter Caramels

What does a mom do when her kids use the M-word (see today's story)? Does she look to an old French billboard for the answer? (This one, an ad for "La Roue" savon--see the old red wheel in the background?--seems to suggest a good old-fashioned washing-out-of-the-mouth with soap! 

Those lime-green leaves are just itching to tickle that lemon of a Citroën.

Guili-Guili! Gallic Gazettes for you today!

Ticklish? Vous craignez les chatouilles (fear the tickles...)? Then you'd better go and hide under the bed, with the dust bunnies, lest our furled Francophile fingers find you (!) and unleash a string of snorts from your inner laughing court. Guili-guili!* Gitchy, gitchy!--we're tickling today:

CHATOUILLER (shaah-tooy-ay) verb
    : to tickle

Hear today's word and phrase ("Vous craignez les chatouilles"?): Download Chatouiller . Download Chatouiller



(OK, to be truthful, I had no French word to match today's topic, so witness, now, one wordsmith's attempt to MAKE today's term FIT into today's theme, the theme being Other People's Blogs on France):

As I was about to say... to wake somebody up, you might tickle their toes with a feather or, if you're really evil, you might poke your finger into their armpit. (We hate that!) Have no fear, we're sticking to those feathery "wake up" tickles today, the kind that awaken awareness and cause curiosity -- and the one thing we are all curious about here, is FRANCE... and the FRENCH!

So today, we're tickling each other into awareness about other sites and blogs
dedicated to France, the French, and the French language.

Here's how to participate (or "tickle" back):

=> Share with us a blog or site about France or French life via this link.

It can be your own blog (please don't be shy!), it might be your daughter's, cousin's, or grandmother's blog... Maybe it is a friend's blog... or the website of your "pire ennemi" (or "foe")? In that case, it's time to give up the green (the little green monster) and tell us about that great Gallic gazette
(or blog, or site, or newsletter...) that you secretly enjoy. Spill the beans, get it out, scour the net, leave no stone unturned. Guili-guili-guili, gitchy, gitchy, goo, we want to discover more of France, we're just itching too!

(Side note: Have you been itching to start your own blog on "something French" so as to share your experience, savoir faire, or souvenirs with us Francophiles? Here's the best advice I've ever heard: "If you build it, they will come." So here we are, fingers curled just waiting to tickle back... What are you waiting for? Start that blog! ... and be sure to enter it into the recommended blog links (via the comments box) here.

Let's start those recommendations now, I'll begin:
For a delightful peek into French life in the Ardèche region, check out Rachel Pommier's blog. She's an American writer married to a fetching, faith-filled, Frenchman (Raphael!). Along with three darling demoiselles, they make their home (and their wine) in the beautiful Ardèche region. More, here.


More French / France related sites here: http://frenchblogs.notlong.com/

For the French Blog Directory submit your site, or another's, here.

NOTE! In order for the suggested site links to be clickable, make sure to prepend the site address with http://  (add http:// before the "www").

Oh, those French love their art. They tuck it into every nook and cranny. Photo of Madonna and Child in a corner niche in the village of Villedieu (Vaucluse).

CONTRETEMPS (con-truh-tahn) noun, masculine
    : mishap, mischance
    : hitch; delay, inconvenience
    : syncopation (music) ... and see story, below, about "a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats...." (Dictionary.com)

Expressions & Examples:
  arriver à contretemps = to arrive at the wrong moment
  jouer à contretemps = to play out of time

AUDIO FILE: hear Jean-Marc pronounce the word "contretemps" and the related expressions (please check back later... having computer mishaps, or "contretemps," this morning!)

Today's Topic: Art
Share your thoughts about art. Read the story column below, watch the videos, and respond, via the comments box, any which way you like.

Would anyone like to translate the following quote, about art, into French? Thanks for using the comments box. Do you agree with the quote?:

Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being. --Carl G. Jung



The French word "contretemps" means, among other things, "a note played against the beat". I wonder whether that is why art means more and more to some of us lately, enough to dare us to put meaningless obligations aside in order to pursue creative activity (or "creativity"), and so make a swift turn, marching to another drum beat: our own.

Break apart the word "contretemps" and you get "against time" which explains why artists find it difficult to dabble in their division (you know, the art department). Who's got "temps" to sit quietly, waiting for the muse? And so we must make it (time and art): we shove a few things aside, allow the dust to build up, let the cat eat dog food, don't care about our hair... wear holes in our socks and dive into design when and where we can. If the muse is present, great!, if not, then ainsi soit-il!* Nothing's stopping us now.

Contretemps: Part Deux...
As commitments creep in, and you feel like your plate is too full, duty dripping over at the sides, you might be tempted to invent a contretemps* in order to excuse yourself from the whirlwind. Who wants to be in a crowded, cacophonic room, when one's own soul-centering salon beckons? A reading lamp with a warm golden hue dancing beneath the dusty lampshade, a pile of favorite books, a jam jar full of colorful felt markers and a sketchbook by one's side... music musing in the background. When's the last time you were there, in that cozy chair?

Contretemps: Intermezzo
(We'll now take a break in the midst of this dilemma, its theme having to do, we think, with "art 'against time' or 'time against art'"--whether that be the art of writing, of painting, of singing... or simply the art of living...)

Contretemps: Conclusion
My mom* sent me a video the other day. "For Jackie and Max," her note said. I clicked open the link and found myself carried away by a quirky Canadian creator: a filmmaker, in all due respect. And I *do* respect the dues and bad days that an artist pays to get to such freedom. For isn't that the end result
of art: when the viewer (reader, or listener) is liberated, from time and space? Off we fly, if not contre le vent,* then, somehow, "contre temps" and time's constraints.

I hope you'll enjoy these videos by Andrea Dorfman,* my current muse. The thoughtful lyrics, by Tanya Davis,* which accompany the first video, will have you clicking the replay button again, and again.

Please forward this post to your favorite artist.



And this, another by Andrea Dorfman, is a short film about bicycling and love:




Love these lyrics from the above video:   There's no such thing as Happy, like some people like to think, it's a trick to make you buy stuff to go with your kitchen sink.

Did you like these videos? Leave a message in the comments box.

~~~~~~~~~~~References~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ainsi soit-il = so be it; un contretemps (m) = an unexpected circumstance (preventing one from making it to an appointment, etc...); my mom = Jules, aka MamaJules; contre le vent = against the wind; Andrea Dorfman = http://myspace.com/andreadorfman ; Tanya Davis = http://tanyadavis.ca


~~~~~~~~~~~~Gifts & More~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love & Language

In French music: ZEN by Zazie!   

French for Kids: Learn French (DVD)  

French film: La Vie en Rose

In books: Christmas in the Trenches: In 1914, British and German troops were dug into trenches in France, facing one another across the barbed wire and barren ground called No Man's Land. On
Christmas Eve, the British soldiers heard the Germans singing Stille Nacht and joined in. --From School Library Journal

A bakery in Villedieu (Vaucluse). Don't you love it when the name ("Fournier") ressembles the trade ("boulangerie")?  Proof that destiny ne se trompe pas. Do you have any examples of names that match the métier? Thanks for leaving your examples in the comments box.

SE TROMPER (suh-trom-pay) reflexive verb

    : to be mistaken, to be wrong

Examples & Sound file (click the links below):
tout le monde peut se tromper = anyone can make a mistake
se tromper dans ses calculs = to mess up in one's calculations
se tromper de numéro = to dial the wrong number
Download Se tromper . Download Se tromper

Do you know of any more examples of "se tromper". What is a (funny, remarkable...) mistake that you have made... in language or in life? Please use the comments box to share your thoughts with other readers.

COURRIER in a French Life...
I received the following letter from Larry Krakauer, after posting James's story a few weeks back. Larry writes:

"Ignorance is Bliss" in the olive capital of Nyons.

TO BE HONEST, I don't know how to spell today's French "word," or gesture, rather. You'll just have to press your lips together tightly, then force a gust of breath through them. If a "pppp" sound didn't come out, then you've been too prude (and ended up with a "ffff"). Try again.

The resulting sound actually has meaning! It translates, specifically, to these French words: "Je ne sais pas." That's right:

Pppp! = Je ne sais pas. (I don't know.)

Go figure. In my own (American) culture, we don't have to worry about making funny (easily mistaken for somethin' else...) noises. To give in to inquiry, we simply raise our shoulders!

I remember being caught off guard, the first hundred times I heard the French "pppp!" (Especially when a woman ppppd.) All that's changed now, and I welcome the tickle that my lips feel after uttering a sound that once lacked appeal.

Example:
"How many calories are in those cookies?" a French friend asks.
"Pppp! (I don't know!)"

"Is it an American specialty?"
"Pppp! (Beats me!)"

Go ahead. Dare someone to ask you a baffling question today. (But don't be surprised if, on hearing your reply... they run the other way.)



I am sitting at the edge of the bed, looking out the window at November's end. Once the pomp and parade of fall colors fade, what is left are the ashes of autumn. The earth turns in on itself and so do those who trod upon it. In the darkness, questions come to light, nagging issues such as, What is important in this life?

I look over to my teenage son, who is busy with the task of grooming. He's got my tattered trousse de toilette* beside him, having fished out the clippers from inside.

"Max," I say. "If you were given the chance to share an important thought with the entire world, what would that message be?"

Next, I brace myself for that flicker of genius to appear... the kind that graces children--and chance be ours when we're focused enough to hear!

I wait patiently for "the message" to be mysteriously channeled through my 13-year-old son with the overgrown toenails. I'm one to believe in the pureness of pint-sized knowledge and hope to be tuned in when Sagesse* speaks, "out of the mouth of babes".

Leaning forward, I put my ear close to the chapped lips of the would-be child savant, and this is what I hear:

"I don't know, Mom."

With that, the messenger resumes his toenail clipping. That'll do, I decide, letting the answer linger a bit.

Doubt creeps in and I double check with the mini messiah. "'I don't know.' Is that it? Is that what you have to share with the world?"

"Mmmhmmm," Max replies, and I watch a few more nail clippings rocket through the air. Some messages come with fireworks, I decide, never mind these aren't sizzling.

Well, I can work with that. And so I do. I think about Max's "I don't know" answer to a meaningful life. The "I don't know" concept is, after all, brillant! For, with knowledge comes power and how many of us make the mistake of tacking pride on to that? Pride then squashes humility and things tend to go
downhill (Pride goeth before the fall...) from there.

And knowledge, or too much of it, sometimes leads to fear. I listen to friends talk about the effect that all those info-packed newspaper headlines had on the economy. Panic sent people zipping up their pocket books. Companies shut down. People lost jobs.

I don't mean to give the big K, "Knowledge," a bad name... no, I'd never argue with my faith-filled mom when she tells me to fill up on The Word! Only, I sometimes wonder about how much I should strive to know when a lot of what I take in only serves to distract. Bits and pieces of this and that and, before I know it, I've gotten off track! There I am, left spinning in the super flu. Dad once said "You think too much!" and, you know, I now think he's right: so busy are we sifting through a magnitude of facts, that the basic ideas get hidden beneath all those "informative" stacks.

Most times I'm guilty of assumption: when I think I know something and, in fact, I've got it all wrong. Such "insights" paint my perceptions and, busy with a wealth of tidbits, I'm circling through a Never Never Land of ideas again.

I once had a Mensa-ish friend, one of those brilliant types, but what amazed me was her humility. I'll never forget her response when asked about her know-it-ness. She abruptly raised both hands... and began hitting her head! "I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" she screamed, in all sincerity (none of that false
modesty). Her startling, head tapping show, wonderfully illustrates the concept of "I Don't Know!"

Knowledge isn't all bad, especially when it connects us to another:
Having known pain, one sympathizes with the sufferer,
having known poverty, one understands need,
having known injustice, one argues for the accused,
having known loss, one's heart goes out to the grief-stricken,
having known fear, one comforts the frightened.

                            *    *     *
I'm beginning to think that what is important in life is not how much we know, but what little we can focus on. In my case, the teenage toenail clipper sitting beside me. While I'll never understand the physics behind those "flying toenails," how they self-launch following each clip of the cutters, I can know the fondness I feel for a boy whose "message," in the end, is ever so coy.

***
Comments, corrections, and suggestions are always welcome, here (in the comments box).

References: la trousse (f) de toilette = make-up (shaving) bag; la Sagesse (f) = Wisdom


Audio File:
Listen to Jean-Marc pronounce today's gesture (if pronouncing a gesture is possible...), in response to my question "Cheri, ou est-ce que tu as mis les clés? (Honey, where've you put the keys?) Download Pppp . Download Pppp


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Gifts & More~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simple enough for a beginner but challenging enough for a more advanced student, French Demystified is your shortcut to mastering this engaging language.

Chansons Pour Noel: French Songs for the holidays.

Quiet Corners of Paris is a beautifully illustrated peek into eighty-one often overlooked, always beautiful, locales: hidden villas, winding lanes, little-known 19th-century passages, serene gardens, and cobblestone courtyards.