Whipsaw

whipsaw • \WIP-saw\ • verb

1 : to saw with a whipsaw

2 : to beset or victimize in two opposite ways at once, by a two-phase operation, or by the collusive action of two opponents

I think that for most of us, the first image to come to mind was that of two men holding either end of a whipsaw to cut a giant log. Thus, I thought of this:



They come from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, one of the few games I was any good at on the Super Nintendo. But I digress....

Every conflict has two sides, whether they are two people, two countries, or just two ideas. Whipsaws are two-sided objects, needing two people to make them work. However, those two people are using their force to enable a sharp-edged object to cut something else in two - an act of violence, even when it's just a saw on a log. All too often conflicts are mired in violence, and now is no exception. Martinique and Guadeloupe, two French islands in the Caribbean, are on strike at the moment, demanding higher wages to offset the high cost of living. Protests are becoming violent and destructive. Things were formerly worse in Guadaloupe in terms of the level of violence, but as recently as 6-7 hours before this post was made, negotiations seemed to be showing some progress (though the strike is still on as of now). Martinique is still in turmoil (article in French). In what way is this a whipsaw situation? Not only is there effectively a tug of war between the two sides attempting to find an end to this strike, one way or the other, but the people living on these islands are being beset by the high cost of living that brought this on, the economic standstill that has been going on for 37 days, and the destruction, violence, and fear that has come about as a result of the protests. These two islands have relatively high unemployment rates in comparison to the rest of France, so the pressure is heightened by that as well.

To see a video about this situation (in English), click here.

This isn't a unique situation worldwide, of course. Here in the USA, and in other countries all over the world, economic issues are greatly affecting our daily lives, as we all know. I wasn't aware of this until very recently, yet it has been going on for over a month now. It's something to think about, though....

Girandole

Main Entry:
gir·an·dole
Pronunciation: \ˈjir-ən-ˌdōl\
Function: noun
Etymology: French & Italian; French, from Italian girandola, from girare to turn, from Late Latin gyrare, from Latin gyrus gyre
Date: 1749

1 : a radiating and showy composition (as a cluster of skyrockets fired together) 2 : an ornamental branched candlestick 3 : a pendant earring usually with three ornaments hanging from a central piece

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Well, to be honest, this is the first thing I thought of: The Center of the Hollywood Universe. But that's not exactly relevant.

The second thing I thought of is something we probably all know or at least have heard at some point in our education.

"L'état, c'est moi." - Louis XIV of France

"Louis XIV chose the sun as his emblem. The sun was associated with Apollo, god of peace and arts, and was also the heavenly body which gave life to all things, regulating everything as it rose and set. Like Apollo, the warrior-king Louis XIV brought peace, was a patron of the arts, and dispensed his bounty. The regularity of his work habits and his ritual risings and retirings (levee and couchee) were another point of solar comparison. Throughout Versailles, decoration combines images and attributes of Apollo (laurel, lyre, tripod) with the king's portraits and emblems (the double LL, the royal crown, the sceptre and hand of justice). The Apollo Salon is the main room of the Grand Apartment because it was originally the monarch's state chamber. The path of the sun is also traced in the layout of the gardens."
(Louis XIV the Sun King)

King Louis XIV is known to the history books as the Sun King. As the "sun" he was in the middle of everything, and his gravitational pull kept everyone and everything under his control to some extent. The quote above outlines some of the sun imagery and symbolism as Louis XIV used it.

So how does this connect to girandole? If you look at the first definition, "a radiating and showy composition (as a cluster of skyrockets fired together)", you might think of the arts. As the quote above mentions, Louis XIV was a great patron of the arts- everything from painting to theater. You can also take this to mean Versailles, which as a palace is nothing if not radiating and showy. I mean that in the best way possible. If you look at the second and third definitions, you get the idea of things branching out or dangling from a central piece. Think of Louis XIV's court, always kept around him at Versailles. They were the satellites to his sun. Without that central piece, there would be more conflict between those other pieces, but the central one regulates it all. At the time of his rule France was arguably the most powerful country in Europe, so you could even broaden that satellite metaphor out to Europe.

Was he the best king ever? Oh, probably not. With all the good things he did there were naturally plenty of downsides (not the least of which was his extravagant spending, a trend which continued straight on down to Louis XVI, and we all know how that turned out).

TRIVIA: French heels can be traced back to Louis XIV. Being rather short, he sometimes wore shoes with a higher heel to make himself appear taller. Click here, here, or here for a little more on this. You can see a famous example in the picture below.




Here's a video of some images of Louis XIV accompanied by some music of that time period (by Lully, a composer he supported). Look for the shoes! :)

Reconcile

I apologize for the delay - after my internet died when I originally worked on this, I just kept forgetting to come back and attempt again to post it! Now that I'm getting ready to put up the next one, of course I remember now. Je m'excuse.

reconcile • \REK-un-syle\ • verb

1 a : to restore to friendship or harmony
b : settle, resolve

*2 : to cause to submit to or accept something unpleasant

3 a : to check (a financial account) against another for accuracy
b : to account for

reconcile (Merriam-Webster.com)

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Part of learning a foreign language is learning the culture, as we all know. We usually start in a classroom, and the lucky ones among us get the chance to go abroad, whether for a couple of weeks or a summer or a year. As we learn about a new culture, we are given a new mental task, whether we are conscious of it or not: to reconcile the two cultures in our minds. This speaks to the first definition for most people in that they try to establish a sense of harmony between the two cultures, but of course there are also those who see learning a new culture as unpleasant and uncomfortable (which might call on the second definition). I think that the reconciliation that happens between two cultures is born of discomfort or another form of dissonance but resolved in harmony.

Thought: A little discomfort can be good for you.

Discomfort shakes everything up. It's about being outside our comfort zones, thinking beyond what we already know. And yes, it is also about reconciling things. It's sometimes positive and sometimes negative - it all depends on how you react to it. You can take your discomfort as negative and cling to what you know to the point that you see nothing else. You can also take your discomfort as a positive development; it can be an opportunity, and it can in a way enhance your experience.

So I went to Europe 3 days after finals ended in May 2005. I had just graduated with my MAT and this trip was my graduation present. I went with my good friend Liz, who had been to Europe before. I had never gone. We had not made any plans except a loose idea of where we wanted to go and when (and of course our plane tickets). I don't know how many of you know this about me, but I do like to have a plan. I can't do the whole "fly by the seat of one's pants" thing. Anyway, we got on our plane with our backpacks. I should probably mention at this point that we were doing the "backpacking" thing. After the longest plane ride I've ever been on (the Houston to Paris flight was 10 hours), Liz and I arrived in Paris at 11:30 am their time. We totally missed baggage claim the first three times we passed it, but managed to recover our bags and get out. Our next step was to find a hostel. Because we left a mere three days after graduation and had had finals and other things on our minds, we hadn't planned ahead, but Liz hadn't ever had a problem just walking into hostels before, so we figured we'd be fine. The first place we went turned us down, and the lady was kinda mean and snippy about it. We went to another one, and were unable to find beds there, either. Luckily, the man working the desk was very nice and he even called ahead to another hostel for us to reserve beds. By the time we got to the hostel where we were going to stay, we had been trekking around Paris for three hours with heavy backpacks. We dumped our stuff, changed out of our super-sweaty clothes, and went out to start enjoying the city. At this point I was extremely uncomfortable, and there was a part of me that felt a little bit like I shouldn't be there, like I wasn't ready for it. My first few hours in France were full of sweat, confusion, and a lot of walking around. I think you could agree I was pretty uncomfortable at this point. It may be a stereotype, but I think that Americans don't really enjoy things that make them uncomfortable like that.

Then we went out. We hit Notre Dame and walked all along the Seine looking at the bouquinistes and marveling at how pretty it all was. We went to this neighborhood with a lot of really nice shops where Liz had spent a lot of time when she studied in Paris. We stopped into this tea shop called Ladurée where it smelled absolutely heavenly. I had this wonderful pastry that tasted like roses and was all pink with all this rich yet light cream on it, with some raspberry jam on the inside. I took a picture of it; it was so pretty. I'm pretty sure this was it:



Last stop on this day was the Eiffel Tower. I didn't go all the way to the top, but I did go up to the first level. Even from there you could see so much of Paris. It was absolutely beautiful. The main thing about that first day was that nothing really felt real to me yet. It was all very dreamlike, perhaps because it had been such a long day. It wasn't until I went up in the tower that I finally felt like I was really there. I was in PARIS. I had put aside all that discomfort and my lazy American impulses and I was here, just taking it all in. I was reconciling my fatigue and my fear of the new with all the things that I had always dreamed of seeing and the fact that I was actually there.

The rest of the trip featured several more episodes of discomfort along the way, as well as stops in Marseilles and Cannes in France and Florence and Rome in Italy. That initial experience of having to make peace with my day was still what I returned to each time something awkward happened to us (and believe me, awkward things happened).

Next up: girandole.