Where are your wife's pants?
Tuesday, 9. May 2006, 18:59:27
That, apparently, is the only phrase a friend of mine can construct in Spanish. He doesn't strike me as the person to use it much, either. Still, it was nice to catch up with him.
Once upon a time I learned a lot of Australian poetry. One of the cooler jobs I ever had was to sit in the bush by a fire, and recite the stuff for a couple of hours. A lot of people know of "The Man from Snowy River" (a story about a plucky kid who turned out to be greater than many legendary horsemen). There is humour in nearly all the poetry I learned, from "A Bush Christening" (again well-known in Australia, about a drunk priest playing jokes) or "Been there before" (about conning conmen in a small country town) to the altogether darker "McPherson's Last Ride" (about a jockey who correctly predicts his own death in a race).
One of the more humourous, and more serious poems, is by Henry Lawson, a man who was replaced on the $10 note by "Banjo Paterson" - the author of the poems named above. Lawson was a darker character - where Paterson was a war correspondent, lawyer, racing fanatic in a racing-mad country, and city-slicker in a country which (fancifully even 100 years ago) imagined itself full of bushmen, Lawson was a boy from the bush, a poet, alcoholic, who died a broken exile in Europe.
It is called "When your pants begin to go". And it is about basic dignity, and the things that it can and cannot readily cover.
Fundamentally, unfortunately, a lot of dignity is simply bought and sold, and to play the game cash is a valuable tool. As more of the game is played that way, more people respect the rule of gold (the one with the gold makes the rules) more than the golden rule (treat others as they would be treated). It is easy to tell brave stories about casually sleeping on a floor, in a broken down hostel, or under a bridge, and if it doesn't happen often and isn't hard to deal with then it is a fine thing to have done. Being caught a few bob short and calling in a debt of favours, or borrowing a few quid in a pinch is fine. Every traveller (and many more who never had a chance to travel) has a tale of dry biscuits and water, or a bank that blocked their credit at a crucial moment.
But I am very happy to have a new pair of jeans, and consign my former best pair which are now very well ventilated to the dustbin of history.
Once upon a time I learned a lot of Australian poetry. One of the cooler jobs I ever had was to sit in the bush by a fire, and recite the stuff for a couple of hours. A lot of people know of "The Man from Snowy River" (a story about a plucky kid who turned out to be greater than many legendary horsemen). There is humour in nearly all the poetry I learned, from "A Bush Christening" (again well-known in Australia, about a drunk priest playing jokes) or "Been there before" (about conning conmen in a small country town) to the altogether darker "McPherson's Last Ride" (about a jockey who correctly predicts his own death in a race).
One of the more humourous, and more serious poems, is by Henry Lawson, a man who was replaced on the $10 note by "Banjo Paterson" - the author of the poems named above. Lawson was a darker character - where Paterson was a war correspondent, lawyer, racing fanatic in a racing-mad country, and city-slicker in a country which (fancifully even 100 years ago) imagined itself full of bushmen, Lawson was a boy from the bush, a poet, alcoholic, who died a broken exile in Europe.
It is called "When your pants begin to go". And it is about basic dignity, and the things that it can and cannot readily cover.
Fundamentally, unfortunately, a lot of dignity is simply bought and sold, and to play the game cash is a valuable tool. As more of the game is played that way, more people respect the rule of gold (the one with the gold makes the rules) more than the golden rule (treat others as they would be treated). It is easy to tell brave stories about casually sleeping on a floor, in a broken down hostel, or under a bridge, and if it doesn't happen often and isn't hard to deal with then it is a fine thing to have done. Being caught a few bob short and calling in a debt of favours, or borrowing a few quid in a pinch is fine. Every traveller (and many more who never had a chance to travel) has a tale of dry biscuits and water, or a bank that blocked their credit at a crucial moment.
But I am very happy to have a new pair of jeans, and consign my former best pair which are now very well ventilated to the dustbin of history.
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I was disappointed a while back when I made a reference to christening something McGuiness and nobody got it. Not one of the uni-educated people in my team, not even the librarians.
By cheshrkat, # 12. May 2006, 02:48:31
Australia has a tradition all it's own. Some of it is very forgetable, some is regretable. But goodly chunks of it are worth celebrating - even beyond football, millionaire movie stars, and celebrity wives.
By chaals, # 12. May 2006, 03:54:22