One of my favorite books is Eva Hoffman's memoir, Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language. In it, she describes the experience of leaving Poland with her family and moving to Vancouver, B.C., where her parents suddenly went from being in charge of everything to seeming lost and alone and she, even though she learned the new words faster than they, was never sure of what they really meant -- those subtle cultural contexts that it takes a native to know. I confess I hit the wall in French for a time last week. In the first instance, I was struggling with a system for classifying subordinate clauses that still eludes me. "I know how to use the damn things," I want to say, "why do I have to know this?" Does it matter in everyday speech whether a subordinate clause has for its purpose 'cause', 'consequence', 'but' (objective) and so on? And then I have discovered just how long it takes to do everything in a foreign country and how difficult to understand and use the points of inflection (the plight of Eva's parents) -- even finding eggs in the grocery store involves wandering forever. And so I'm wondering if four hours a day in school (however much I enjoy interacting with the teachers and other students) with homework afterwards and no time to go to the market in the morning or visit a museum on a weekday, or take a cooking class is really what I'm after. How much mastery of French is enough? Should I maybe just get a tutor and go to a bunch of meet-ups? There are an amazing number of web sites that pair English-speaking francophones with native French anglophones (given French attitudes toward the English, who knew there were any?).
So, my determination to be here is not diminished, but my idea of how to go about it is beginning to evolve. Meantime, I have found a perfect apartment, with room for guests if you come serially, and now it's just a question of negotiating a deal with the owner.
In spite of the frustrations, I collected some more Franglish: le speed-dating (self-evident); yéyé (rock and roll music -- from the Beattle's refrain, yeah, yeah, yeah in the song She Loves You); une femme trophée (a trophy wife). I think they are just delicious!
I've had some other revelations too. This past weekend was the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's appearance in the pulpit of the American Church here in Paris while he was in Europe to accept the Nobel Prize. The church had several events connected with the anniversary, one of which was a lecture by Dr. Clayton Carson, Centennial Professor of History at Stanford and probably the pre-eminent expert on King's life and writings. He gave a terrific talk that reminded us of a speech we seldom hear discussed, King's address at the Nobel ceremonies, in which he defined the civil rights struggle in the U.S. as a side-show in the larger struggle for human rights around the globe. Carson went on to talk about all the human rights that have been recognized because of and since the U.S. civil rights struggle -- women's rights, rights of gay and trans-gender people, rights of less abled persons, rights of old people, and so on. He is an older gentleman with a quiet voice but he was powerfully reminding us that Dr. King never imagined that the successes of the civil rights movement meant the drive toward human rights was over. He never imagined the day when he could go home because his work was finished. And on Sunday, if we had any doubt, Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, Dean of the Duke University Chapel and Assoc. Professor of Homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary, gave probably the best sermon I've ever heard using as his text 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (see the quote below). It was quiet and erudite, talking about how the beginning of action is listening and how listening is an antidote to fear, but ending in a stemwinder of a call to action. It was absolutely electrifying and makes me want to work on refugee issues here more than ever. The news sadly demonstrates daily that there is still much to do.
So, the journey continues...
The Lord Calls Samuel
3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
