Anytime I make a trip to Paris, it has become a priority of mine to visit with Madame L and the French man in their secluded hideout out amongst the badgers and the cornfields. So of course today I made my way out of Paris and over to the homestead for lunch. As an added bonus on this particular trip, I met many of the daughters I had long heard so much about. And of course they were as great as I suspected, but thats not what this post is about.
As we sat back laughing about old songs from yeast radio and the crap you find on youtube, Madame and I returned to a familiar theme… life in the US. We spoke about friends and family and what situations they are in; as in housepayments, mortgages, insurance payments, loans, credit card debt, etc etc. All these things may be part of your normal day dear reader, but what we were discussing is how we don’t have these things. Beyond that, how when some friends talk to us, they say “you’ll so lucky, you get to live in europe and you don’t have to deal with this.” This statement, of course, has many holes. Not the least of which is that you can actually have lots of these things in Europe just as you do anywhere else. However, the idea that we are somehow lucky for having chosen to live where we live, that’s the strange thing.
We both agreed it is not a matter of luck. It is choice. And despite whatever drawbacks; like living far from loved ones or not making your whopping salary, you too can make the choice and be that person who lives in Europe. Or Kuala Lampur. Or wherever.
No where is it written that all humans must go forth and take out loans and get themselves lots of car payments and other assorted longterm financial requirements. Yet strangely enough, it is people like Madame L and I who are often referred to as the strange ones, or the lucky ones, because we don’t have any of that.
strange world. but hey.. nous aurons toujours paris.
Those are only a few of the arguements I most frequently hear in the comments of this blog and elsewhere. And while I sometimes feel there is an excessive focus on Bush and his cronies, when I read about some of the administration’s actions and attempts at changing national and international law, it becomes very clear that no matter who’s fault it is, the current government in the whitehouse stands head and shoulders above any previous administration when it comes to criminal intent and attempting to ignore or abuse law. 
I mention this because I hadn’t thought about it in awhile until I was riding through Portugal reading my favorite newspaper – O Público. Their magazine pullout section had a special article on feminism and blogging. Many of the blogs were in Portuguese, which of course didn’t surprise me. But to my surprise, right there on the first page of the article in big letters, a link and a description of BitchPhD’s blog. Instant smile on my face to see the good doctor getting recognized, even in Portugal.