Not today, but surely tomorrow... and so it has been like this day after day... and this, compounded with my switching back to my short board (9'1"), has taken the fun out of surfing. It just so happens that I have two weeks off work (and closed the B&B for the holidays)... so I've been waiting, and have stopped "going out anyway because there's no such thing as a bad surf"... yeah, actually, there is... in fact, they're all I've had lately.
I also haven't been writing... or, rather, I've been writing only as much as I've been deleting. In a phone conversation this evening, I mistakenly claimed to have deleted more than I have written... I realized immediately that this is not possible, that I could only delete, at most, exactly as much as I've written. I've written and deleted so much lately... there has been a lot of self-censoring... depressing is too often confused with depressed... and even if Schopenhauer was right, no one really cares to hear it... especially not over Christmas... so tap tap tap tap tap and then baaaaaackspace; repeat.
For some good news, I'm going bungee jumping sometime soon... while not having fun in the surf, I decided that bungee jumping would be an excellent idea, especially as it promises excitement while requiring no skills at all, and only a little effort. The bungee jumping place is in Nanaimo... and I've just got to make sure they're re-opening tomorrow. And then I thought that if I make it all the way to Nanaimo, I might as well go to Vancouver for a visit... so... I'm thinking about it... but not all that stoked... I've got all sorts of visitors lined up for Tofino (even better than seeing them in the city... we're all less distracted)... and there's really nothing that I really want to do in the city... nothing I really want to buy, either. My dad then commented that since I've stopped reading, I don't even need to go to bookstores anymore. I hadn't thought of it, but it's absolutely accurate. I used to really want to go to MacLeods (really really really) and Sophia's and the UBC Bookstore... maybe even Oscar's... and even Chapters if I feel like paying too much for a coffee... but not anymore. I don't buy books online now, either. Ever since I was informed that Schopenhauer is "market controlled" and can't be shipped to Canada... I gave up.
Quitting reading is saving me so much money! Not only do I no longer need to pay for books, I don't even need to spend money to travel to bookstores. It's like quitting smoking! "Reading books never caused any cancer," said the person with whom I was speaking on the phone... indeed not... it causes much worse... and most of it probably listed in the DSM-IV. If I ever do decide to pick up reading again, I've got a small stash ready to go, there was a period (now over) during which I kept buying books because I hadn't noticed that I had stopped reading. So there's a stash if I want to read again. Otherwise, I'll spend the next little while clearing out my brain... it might recover as beautifully as an ex-smoker's lungs. Here's hoping.
And... in other news (I'm not sure how I feel about this)... Têtes à claques is now available in English. It's true... I went there just now to see what's new... I hadn't been there for a few months... and there it was... every video I could think of-- redone in English. The fact that they were for the longest time only available in French (and super colloquial Quebec French, at that) was sort of a consolation to me... it validated my learning French... not wholly, I'm not saying that... but it became one of the reasons that I was glad I speak French... it made it all worthwhile. For all my years of work, I was rewarded with the privilege of understanding and appreciating Têtes à claques. What is left to me now but capturing a few extra nuances in French movies, and overpronouncing some names of wines and cheeses? (which, btw, is totally uncool in Tofino, it's like no one even hears the bit that doesn't sound like English) Even Meilleur du chef (source of excellent illustrated recipes) is available in English. Why, in this new world (I heard a rumour than your Ipod will now translate for you??), would anyone bother to learn another language?
Give me something beautiful to make it worthwhile. Send roots rain.
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Okay. So what I'm reading here is that Tofino is making you whiny. I think that living in an isolated small community has its drawbacks after all. Number one: Mental in-breeding. That's the kind where after awhile, everyone starts thinking alike and most of the thoughts are kind of twisted and freaky, like how bad traits are brought out after successive and repetitive and repetitive (oops...lost track of my words again) generations brings out bad regressive traits that are better left diluted and lost in the gene pool. Incessant whining is one of those traits. Number two: mental stimulation seems to have become a bewildered child that has lost its way and can’t find her/his way home and so wanders aimlessly and after awhile, listlessly without purpose. For example, you not reading!!! Expanding your mind with reading is what keeps US (not U.S. as in United States, just to clarify) going. It provides the brain with fresh thoughts and prevents mental in-breeding by offering up new mental DNA for the cranial gene pool.
ReplyDeleteNow, there may be such things as bad surfs, but there are no such things as bad surf days. That’s an issue of attitude. There’s no such things as bad fishing days either. Only fishless (or in your case, surfless, days). Today, I was fishing, and I broke my rod. $750 down the tube (well, not exactly. You pay good money for a good warranty so I will get my rod repaired or replaced) but in the meantime for the rest of the day, I was prepared to accompany my buddy while he fished and I didn’t. AND, I didn’t mind. But, in the end we went back to the tackle shop and they lent me a loaner rod until mine comes back. But, I have been out fishing and on one particularly bad day broke TWO rods (and I didn’t pay good money so I didn’t have the good warranty and was out of pocket for two rods) but still had a good day being out. It’s sometime the experience of being out and making the most out of life that makes the difference. I still smoked some excellent cigars and didn’t mind trudging around in the snow and being rained on. And observing and reading the water. Life hands you lemons…get over it and then deal with it. Start a company making ReaLemon Juice and make millions.
Sometimes you do end up deleting more than you write only because most of the writing that goes on starts in the mind and gets deleted before it hits the paper. Sometimes it’s best to leave the self-censoring off and go with stream of consciousness writing. So what if it doesn’t make a lot of sense? What in life actually does? But leave the spell check on.
As to the whole language thing. Get over it. Watch movies in French, read books in French and if everyone else around you had read the English version, you have something to talk about. I’d have missed some great books if they weren’t translated into English. Albert Camus’s (is there a “s” after the apostrophe when a proper noun ends in a “s”? Not too sure about that.) The Plague or Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. You’re starting to sound a lot like those French Language police! And the comment about people in Tofino thinking that over-pronouncing some cheese and wine names, not being cool? MENTAL INBREEDING!!!!!! Oh, and if you want Schopie’s books ordered online, I can give you a US address to send it to and my buddy will bring it up for me. That’s what my mule does.
So go bungee jumping, do a dive or two and definitely surf even if it’s a bad surf. You get one ride on the merry go round so make it count. Keep reading and stem the tide of mental inbreeding (I know, I know, mixed metaphor!) even if it cost you money. After all, mental institutions cost a lot too. Or worse, moving back to the city just to be able to have some mental stimulation or distractions to keep you preoccupied costs even more. Keep the thinking fresh and look under rocks at the beach to see what lives there. Or look at the underside of a leaf to see what color it is. Explore. Discover. And most importantly, THINK and never stop. Depressing is often confused with depressed. And do you know why? People don’t know the difference, that’s why. In general, Life is depressing, if you allow it and those who allow it become depressed (there’s also some clinical/biological issues for depression too, I’m well aware although the same can’t be said about depressing). And depressed people are depressing to those around them and it’s contagious. And if things are depressing you, then inevitably, it becomes whining and that’s really depressing so it’s a vicious cycle.
LIVE, LOVE, READ, THINK and EAT. Everything else is a metaphor for something else.
Save the diatribe for your own blog. I didn't say they should stop translating. I said there are fewer incentives and rewards for learning another language. Going out in bad surf is pointless, unless you want to get killed... but if they don't recover the body, life insurance doesn't kick in for seven years.
ReplyDeleteFunny, I always thought saying "get over it" could translate into "ignore your problems so you're easier to be around."
ReplyDeleteHehehe. I like that.
ReplyDelete