On New Year's Resolutions
Heather Mallick of the Globe & Mail has posted an article on CBC.ca about her New Year's resolutions which I found to be quite funny and apt. Here's a link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_mallick/20070101.html
What originally caught my attention was the word "Corrie" in the first resolution - she was speaking about a Corrie Play. At first I got very excited, because I thought she meant Coronation Street, which I love (there's a post way back in November about how much I love it and why). After reading the paragraph though, I somehow don't think that's what she's referring to. Incidentally, The Clam is indignant when I speak of "Corrie", because to her mind "Corrie" should refer to Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch woman who helped hide many Jews during WW2 and who spent the rest of her life traveling the world preaching forgiveness. Her seminal work is Tramp for the Lord, but there are others. However, I cannot help what people have been calling Coronation Street since before I was born. (BTW, "tramp" as used by Corrie ten Boom refers to a hobo, not as in "that's why the lady is a...")
Aaaannnnyway, back to Heather Mallick and the resolutions. The paragraph that I really liked was this:
I will trade in the Toyota Camry for a small, highly fuel-efficient Toyota Yaris, which I will then shun like theatre, taking the bus and subway whenever possible. I will plant birch trees in my back garden and replace the dead rhododendrons with plants that dislike water, positively loathe the stuff. I will take the train to Ottawa rather than fly. Even better, I will not go to Ottawa. My carbon footprint will be a size 4.
My carbon footprint will be a size 4. Brilliant! See, I don't know this chick, but I think she and I would be galpals if I did. She really captures my own issues with life on this planet - I am aware and I know that bad things are going on, but I feel fairly powerless to do anything about it, but I will strive for perfectionism as much as I can, and then feel bad about it when I fail. We Catholics have a great word for that: scrupulosity. I tend to have big issues with scrupulosity. I think there is definitely such a thing as secular scrupulosity: environmental scrupulosity, diet scrupulosity etc.
Anyway, check out the article and tell me if it struck you as funny as it struck me.
What originally caught my attention was the word "Corrie" in the first resolution - she was speaking about a Corrie Play. At first I got very excited, because I thought she meant Coronation Street, which I love (there's a post way back in November about how much I love it and why). After reading the paragraph though, I somehow don't think that's what she's referring to. Incidentally, The Clam is indignant when I speak of "Corrie", because to her mind "Corrie" should refer to Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch woman who helped hide many Jews during WW2 and who spent the rest of her life traveling the world preaching forgiveness. Her seminal work is Tramp for the Lord, but there are others. However, I cannot help what people have been calling Coronation Street since before I was born. (BTW, "tramp" as used by Corrie ten Boom refers to a hobo, not as in "that's why the lady is a...")
Aaaannnnyway, back to Heather Mallick and the resolutions. The paragraph that I really liked was this:
I will trade in the Toyota Camry for a small, highly fuel-efficient Toyota Yaris, which I will then shun like theatre, taking the bus and subway whenever possible. I will plant birch trees in my back garden and replace the dead rhododendrons with plants that dislike water, positively loathe the stuff. I will take the train to Ottawa rather than fly. Even better, I will not go to Ottawa. My carbon footprint will be a size 4.
My carbon footprint will be a size 4. Brilliant! See, I don't know this chick, but I think she and I would be galpals if I did. She really captures my own issues with life on this planet - I am aware and I know that bad things are going on, but I feel fairly powerless to do anything about it, but I will strive for perfectionism as much as I can, and then feel bad about it when I fail. We Catholics have a great word for that: scrupulosity. I tend to have big issues with scrupulosity. I think there is definitely such a thing as secular scrupulosity: environmental scrupulosity, diet scrupulosity etc.
Anyway, check out the article and tell me if it struck you as funny as it struck me.
posted by The Big Seester | 12:44 PM
3 Comments:
It was funny. And yes, the Corrie reference is entirely different from both Coronation Street and Corrie Ten Boom.
When I get an extra few minutes, I'll 'splain.
OK, now I have time to 'splain.
Rachel Corrie was an American student, I think an undergrad, who died around 2000 in the disputed territories on the West Bank. She was part of a 'movement' that had gone out there to 'witness' what was going on, and also to act as human shields to protect Palestinian homes that were being bulldozed by Israel.
Bulldozer came. Rachel Corrie stood in front of the house. Driver says he didn't see her. When she saw he wasn't stopping, she tried to get out of the way, but fell down. You can guess the rest.
It's a sad story, to be sure, but I hope I'm not being too cynical or uncharitable when I say that if she was like a lot of 20-somethings I've known (myself included), she may not have fully thought through the possible consequences of what she was doing. Not that she 'deserved' it or anything, mind you, but when one decides to act as a human shield, one should remember that shields sometimes get hit.
Oh. YAWN.
You know, it's not that shields sometimes get hit. It's that THEIR PURPOSE IN LIFE IS TO GET HIT.
I weep for the future.
So maybe this chick and I would NOT be galpals. But the "size 4 carbon footprint" is hilarious.
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