C'est printemps

It's been feeling so close to summer. Last week was gloriously sunny... Up in the mid-20's (ºCelsius), with clear blue skies.

Then this week arrived.

It's humid and rainy. Terribly gray. Which is a tad unusual for my hometown... Understandable in a city such as Vancouver perhaps, but certainly not here!

It's reminded me that, at May 25, it is still spring time. There's a few weeks left until summer officially arrives. So I've decided to make the best of it, and share with you a delightful picture of the first signs of spring on Vancouver Island, taken during this past spring break which was very rainy indeed. It doesn't get much more spring-like than this.

And, just to add a bit more whimsy, here's a lovely song by Richard Petit, called "Le printemps" (springtime). It's one of my favourites :)

Oh! One more thing. There must be some truth to the whole idea that "love is in the air" during this time of year... Several new couples seem to have cropped up, some out of near-nowhere! But so long as they don't make like bunnies, I'm good with that at the moment. It's really rather adorable. Sometimes I feel like tweaking the younger kids' noses, and saying "Well aren't you two just the cutest thing". But I wouldn't, and I won't. That would be slightly sickening. Though it is a sign that, for the time being, I'm choosing to not dwell on the harsh reality that most of them will get their hearts broken within a few weeks. Maybe months.

Nonetheless, rosy-cheeked young teens holding hands and getting butterflies in their stomachs do seem to pair well with spring. Usually this annoys me to no end, but this year I don't mind.

Connotations

The funny thing about words:

You can pick a few, like plump, fresh apples, and create a short, sweetly broken sentence that hints at spring and pink and red... soft, cherry blossoms, raspberry yogurt, dainty, lips

You can drag them out, choose terrifyingly long, agonizingly dark words, and thrust into being a sentence replete with ... spikes, shrapnel, ore, hooks, vultures

Maybe something mystical, with dreamily spun, nether-worldly, word webs, hinting at the unseen ... moonlight, grey, purple, cloaks, dusk, secrets, mysteries, dreams, fog

Sunlight, orange smoothie, nectar, honeysuckle, glow ... A warm summer day, waiting to be refreshed with a splash of water while above the sun beats down, lending everyone a golden hue

Connotations. I find they have often to do with colour. I think that perhaps, they may be a way for our brain to explain words, to process information and make sense of language.

More interesting perhaps, are the connotations we attach to individuals, the words, activities, traits, even colours we associate with those around us. But what do they attach to themselves? What do you think of when you think of yourself? Hopefully as simply who you are, with no stereotypes attached. You are you, and so need to bring to mind no thing to explain yourself to yourself. (Or do you?) But who else can do the same? It is the best friend, the parent, the lover... the "kindred spirit" who goes beyond simply associating you with other things. Though they may think of the things you love, attach ideas, memories, words and thoughts to your being, they do not define you by them. Other than God, they come the nearest to knowing you as you see yourself. As you... you, you ... you... Your very soul. For souls, from what I know of them, have no place in the material world of connotation and association. They do not need explanation, as they cannot really be understood by our brains anyway. They are what they are what they are... If they are anything like, or even just reflective of who God says He is:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” - Exodus 3:14

Explanations and connotations do not suffice.

The body of an elderly man...

I saw something in the newspaper the other day, about police finding the body of an elderly man who had been in a car crash. It wrote of the police pulling the body from his car. There was nothing mentioned about whether or not he was dead.

It made me think... If that man had still been alive while the police took him from his car, would any newspaper article have stated: "Upon finding out that the victim of the car crash was still alive, the police pulled the body out of the car"? My guess would be no; it sounds too awkward. Even if one were to write, "Upon finding out that the victim of the car crash was still alive, the police pulled the victim's body out of the car", it isn't right. This separates the person from their body, which is okay in some situations, such as when one speaks of pure physical motion (her body sprung into lively action). But in this case, when a living victim is being pulled from a car's wreckage, to separate them from their body and make their body alone representative of what is happening to them as a person, seems odd.

No one calls a living person a "body" when discussing them as an entire entity.

But... We can refer to someone who is dead as a "body" quite easily. In fact, when someone does this, any reader or listener will generally assume that the person being spoken of is dead, as shown by the newspaper article I first made mention of. The reader of this article needs no clarification that it was a dead body that was pulled out of the car.

The only time (that I can think of... If you have another example, feel free to share) that a living person is termed as only a body is in a derogatory sense. If you call a woman, or a man for that matter, a "body", you are taking something away from them. You are leaving out some part of who they are. Perhaps you are objectifying them sexually, or as a source of labour. I think that most everyone would agree that there is something wrong about saying: "She/he is only a body." This is dehumanizing. But why is it dehumanizing? What is there to a person other than their body, with their brain and its various connections included therein?

Yet the worldview that purports that matter is all that exists would believe that a human is merely a body, with the only difference between a living body and a dead body being that for the former, blood is flowing, the brain is functioning, etc., while for the latter it is not. So then, how does this account for the fact that when one refers to a body, it is generally assumed that they are referring to a dead person? Can a living person be a body and a body alone?

The English language does not support the proposition that someone living can consist of only a body. Languages develop to suit the needs of their speakers. They develop to express what is understood and deemed by the general populace to be true, and can end up defining, influencing, defending, and even creating beliefs.

This causes me to think that, if a living person cannot merely be referred to as a body, then there is a truth-based reason behind it, a truth that says that there is more to a human than matter alone.

China

Dear T:

I want so badly to go to China. Well, there and a bazillion other places, but especially China at the moment. The cities I'm sure would be fascinating, but I'm thinking mostly of the mountainous villages - the isolated, vast, cool, mist-shrouded, jewel-green jungles that you see in the best kung fu sorts of movies. We'd probably run into some panda poachers and escape from them across rickety 100-year-old wooden bridges, but that's not the main point. We could trek into Mongolia, Bhutan, Nepal, Kazakhstan, and a thousand other places, drink the best tea, and find the most interesting people. Hopefully they're hospitable.

Check out China's topography:

http://www.maps-of-china.net/general/Image4.htm

I can't wait to go.... Someday!

我爱你 - Wǒ ài nǐ

Québecoise

I am leaving for Québec once more this coming August, again to be educated, though this time in more than just the French language.

For those of you who've read my blog about my time in Jonquière, Québec (http://www.christina-abientot.blogspot.com/), you'll know that I spent five weeks last summer being immersed in the French culture and language through a program called Explore. When I returned home last fall, I didn't quite dare imagine that I'd be able to return to La belle province so soon, but here I am, heading off for Montréal and McGill in 111 days. Wow... That's actually the first time I've counted how many days I have left before leaving.

As a student who is passionate about arts and sciences, I've had a tough time deciding what exactly I want to study, but at the moment, I'm thinking a combination of Linguistics and International Relations could be fascinating. We'll see how it goes.... :)