A Summing Up


The last croissant crumb has fallen from my lips, tastes of a memorable Duck Confit dimmed, and the final Paris memory is fading from my senior citizen mind. The trip is in the hard drive of history. It is time to sum up, to assess, and to try and reach some meaningful conclusions.

First, the trip was a ‘once in a lifetime’ adventure, and as such it was carrying a lot of emotional baggage; it had some heavy lifting to do. Fantasy almost never equals reality; that is why it is fantasy. This time I was fortunate and the trip rang the bell.

It was a long three months that allowed us to get lost in a foreign country and get found in a foreign culture. Our normal support structure was miles away and we built a new one. Full disclosure demands that I tell you I have been in love with Paris since 1983 when I first went there with a favorite cousin. I still consider it the most beautiful city in the world. Paris came through with room to spare.

At the heart of the Paris joyride were the people, they were always an inspiration. They were fun to watch and always surprising when we met. The Parisians have developed a way of living that is fun, gracious, and user friendly in a formal sort of way. They have a way with the moment.

The rude Parisian is a person I didn’t see. We Americans have helped create this myth of the French, probably born from insecurity and impatience. It was also helped along by a French government sometimes willing to bite the hand that fed it.

My return home surprised me with a culture shock that I did not see coming. Three months had seen me living in Paris and not visiting, my return only highlighted this. Part of me is still in Paris even when I am watching a 49er game.

I have been feeling dislocated. I had forgotten all the cable TV channel numbers, the TV commercials look so clever, but seem so fast and frantic. Our internal cruise control is working on a slower Paris speed.

Its is nice to get caught up on football but already I am tired of the player preening, the overly complex onscreen graphics including exploding things, quick cut camera looks, and sport as war nonsense. Its football for heavens sake not your life, it’s not your wife.

The good news: I missed most of the electioneering with the negative campaigns and pictures of the candidate’s smarmy families flashing toothy smiles at the camera. How about a snap of a candidate’s mistress and the incumbent’s favorite bartender for a change? That would get my attention and probably my vote as well.

I find myself a little dissatisfied with not having an adventure on my horizon; I am going to have to look into that. I have had a lot of fun with this blog and heartened by the responses from places I never expected. At the Station # 2 Christmas Party the girlfriend of the Big Oaf came over to introduce herself and tell me how much she enjoyed reading it. Who would have thought that Oaf would find a woman with such discriminating taste and cosmopolitan bearing?
But then, ……..he is a Murphy…………………..