Dog Poo and the Militant Moderate

For those of you who visit this blog looking for a cheap laugh at immature humor and/or witty observations about daily life in Paris: I stepped in poop the other day. There is poop everywhere here. I think French canines must perform acrobatic feats (somersaults, back hand/paw springs) while pooping in order for there to be poo all over the sidewalks, the walls of boutiques, boulangeries, hotels, people’s cars, motorcycles, bicycles, sewer drain covers, welcome mats, there is literally nothing that one commonly associates with sidewalks and their surroundings that I have not seen covered in dog poo. Do French people pick up the poo? No, they wait for some dumb, unobservant pedestrian who is accustomed (for whatever reason) to poo-free sidewalks to carelessly step in the poo and unknowingly carry it off to their destination. One man’s (my) shoe is another (French) person’s pooper scooper.

For those of you who visit this blog with the high hopes that I will say something profound or somehow stimulate your intellect: A group of classmates and I were discussing fundamentalism, government censorship, individual liberties intersecting with social rights, religious garb, international relations, and dog poo the other day (ok, I threw in the dog poo (figuratively) to keep those of you I mentioned in the first paragraph reading). We then discussed moderates and why they never speak out when some crazy [insert political extremist here] says something silly. We entertained the notion that moderates really just aren’t that interesting – who wants to watch as a bunch of people commend the good points of both sides and attempt to diplomatically suggest faults/areas in need of improvement in all ideologies in question when you can hear this? A friend then began to chuckle to himself and shared his vision of “the Militant Moderate” and we soon joined him in laughter. Please imagine someone wielding firearms screaming at two “extremists:” YOU’RE BOTH MAKING VALID POINTS BUT THERE ARE SOME WEAKNESSES IN THE UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS OF BOTH OF YOUR POSITIONS THAT YOU SHOULD EXAMINE MORE CLOSELY AND PERHAPS COMPROMISE ON!! YOU AREN’T GOING TO REACH A SOLUTION BECAUSE YOU ARE EACH TOO BUSY EXAGGERATING AND DEMONIZING THE OTHER PERSON’S POSITION FOR THIS CONVERSATION TO BE PRODUCTIVE!! [fires shots into the air and repeatedly strikes each “extremist” with the butt of an automatic weapon before forcing them to shake hands and listen to each other...]

Anyway, hope the mental image brings you a chuckle and makes you think a little bit (credit to anonymous (in the interest of sparing the innocent from being associated with my ramblings) classmate for the idea). Things in France are going fairly well, classes, library work, wine, research, etc. In other news, maybe one day I’ll finish poking fun at the in-laws visit and recap the Carrico Jr.s’ Christmas in Strasbourg. And maybe get around to any of the other things I said I was going to write about…don’t get your hopes up.

Thanks for reading.