Dilatory.

Mother's Day is this Sunday in the United States, but not until May 26 in France and Canada. Those French. Even when they're late, they're charming.

Napoleon inaugurated the tradition of Mother's Day in France, and it became an official holiday in 1950. French moms can be honored in a multitude of ways: gifts, fancy dinners, cards and flowers, a day of rest... like in the U.S., mothers are treated to a special day where their families treat them like gold.

If I could celebrate Mother's Day in the French style, here are some hints I would give my family. Click on the links and enjoy!

Voisin chocolates: http://www.chocolat-voisin.com/chocolats/index.html

A little something from Cartier (in white gold, please): http://www.cartier.com/en

One fresh loaf of Poilane bread every week for a year: http://www.poilane.fr/

The complete piano works of Chopin: http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Complete-Works-Box-Set/dp/B000MM1EME/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1241455820&sr=8-1

A leather-bound copy of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux: http://cgi.ebay.com/Easton-Press-PHANTOM-OF-THE-OPERA-by-LEROUX-SEALED_W0QQitemZ360152235828QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAntiquarian_Collectible?hash=item53dabeff34&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Biannual.

As though they needed it.

Young French women may be getting their very own twice-yearly edition of Vogue. Publishers of the famed women's magazine recently announced they're considering a francophone version of Teen Vogue.

Watch this spot for more (she said breathlessly)! In the meantime, enjoy this delicieuse cover featuring the French supermodel Noemie Lenoir.

Also, for a peek at what these girls endure (okay... make that "what they voluntarily submit to"), check out this catwalk video from Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0eINGyJHz8&feature=related The male news anchors make real donkeys out of themselves, but I cannot tell a lie. I laughed too.

Diaphanous.

Transparent. Revealing. Finely wrought. Three things that describe France and its people very well.

When traveling in France or talking with one of my French friends, one of the things I appreciate most is never having to guess what they think or how they feel. They're the most transparent people I know. They are what they are, they think what they think, and they're a lot like... well, Chenonceau in the fog (pictured). France and its people are wonderful to behold, but woe to anyone who underestimates their strength and substance.

The French are probably emotionally healthier than many other cultures because they don't let things fester. If they're mad at you, they'll tell you. They just come right out with it -- in conversation, in politics, in traffic -- and they don't play mind games. There's something great about that. By not reining in their personal opinions (by not "going easy" on you), they're in fact paying you a compliment. They're assuming that you can take it... that you can engage them as an equal... that you can hang onto your convictions and defend them like a bulldog. (Better make that a French bulldog, though...)

How to apply all this to our culture? We think of ourselves as outspoken, but I think we still tend to beat around the bush a little too much. Transparency is a good thing. It wins respect.

And respect wins friends.

Acedia.

Apathy. Boredom. Torpor. Ennui.

Emma Bovary.

One of the most famous heroines of French literature might be considered the poster child for acedia. If you've never read Madame Bovary, you ought to. It's the story of what can happen when a person mistakes life for fiction and therefore has no authentic human relationships.

From Chapter IX, "Idle Dreams":

At the bottom of her heart she was waiting for something to happen. Like shipwrecked sailors, she turned despairing eyes upon the solitude of her life, seeking afar off some white sail in the mists of the horizon. She did not know what this chance would be, what wind would bring it her, toward what shore it would drive her... but each morning as she awoke, she hoped it would come that day; she listened to every sound, sprang up with a start, wondered that it did not come; then at sunset, always more saddened, she longed for the morrow.

From the beginning of July, she counted how many weeks there were to October, thinking that perhaps the Marquis d'Andervilliers would give another ball. But all September passed without letters or visits.

After the ennui of this disappointment, her heart once more remained empty and then the same series of days recommenced. So now they would thus follow one another, always the same, immovable and bringing nothing. Other lives, however flat, at least had the chance of some event... but nothing happened to her; God had willed it so! The future was a dark corridor, with its door at the end shut fast.

So... does anything ever happen to her? Plenty. But you'll have to find out for yourself. (Hint: the last thing that happens to her is really bad and really permanent.) One of the best books ever written in any language, and you can downloand it for free: http://www.online-literature.com/gustave-flaubert/madame-bovary/

Purfle.

Adornment. Embellishment. That "something extra" that makes a thing more beautiful.

In the huge family I came from, music was held in high esteem. We worked hard, studied hard and took music lessons -- flute, in my case. I haven't picked one up in years, but I've never regretted learning to read and appreciate music.

I recently discovered an interesting contribution the French made to the performance of Baroque music -- it's called "French ornamentation." Think of it as musical "purfling." In playing a particular line of music, the performer adds a distinct flourish to certain notes. The flourish isn't needed to carry the melody. It's written into the music simply because it's lovely.

I'm describing this in very general terms, when in fact the terminology of French ornamentation is very broad: appogiatura, trill, mordent, turn, glissando... For an untrained ear, the easiest French ornamentation to hear is the trill -- a rapid vibrating back and forth between two notes.

Would you like to hear an example? "Trumpet Voluntary," a very familiar composition by Baroque composer Jeremiah Clarke. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8jCud-aA3Q&feature=related

My brother John, who played the pipe organ, was the best musician of the family. He was totally blind as a result of cancer of the retina. He died at the age of 36. Hearing this music makes me love and miss him even more.

Silencing a culture.

How to oppress a group of people? Make the speaking of their native language a crime.

Get a load of this article in today's New York Times. I'm including a good bit of it here, with the link at the bottom if you'd care to read the rest.

Kurd’s Speech Defies Turkish Taboo

By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: February 24, 2009

ISTANBUL — A prominent Kurdish lawmaker gave a speech in his native Kurdish in Turkey’s Parliament on Tuesday, breaking taboos and also the law in Turkey, a country that has long repressed its Kurdish minority for fear it would try to secede.

Turkey’s state television cut off the live broadcast of the official, Ahmet Turk, as he spoke to members of his political party, the Democratic Society Party, known by its Turkish initials, D.T.P.

It was the second time in recent history that a speech was delivered in Kurdish in Parliament. In 1991, Leyla Zana spoke in Kurdish, her native language, when she was sworn in as a deputy. She had immunity as a lawmaker, but it was later stripped and she served 10 years in prison on other charges.

Turkey has a troubled past with its Kurds, who make up at least a fifth of its population. The Turkish military fought a war with a Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., in the predominantly Kurdish southeast in the 1980s and 1990s. The area was subsequently governed by martial law, and speaking Kurdish was prohibited.

The violence has decreased drastically, and Kurdish is no longer banned as a language, but its public use at events like Tuesday’s speech, or at rallies, on fliers or in advertisements, is still illegal. Kurdish officials like Mr. Turk have been trying to push the boundaries of those rules.

“Being multilingual is a richness,” Mr. Turk said in Turkish, before he switched to Kurdish. “Protecting this richness, keeping it alive, is a requirement of this era.”

He said he wanted to speak his native language in honor of a United Nations holiday celebrating world languages, and because of “meaningless oppression and prohibitions on Kurdish persist.”

For more, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/world/europe/25turkey.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Whipsaw.
A two-way battle. A tug-of-war, if you will. Two opposing forces focused on one thing.

Speaking of such, the Chinese are really mad at the French. The battle centers on some priceless works of art that disappeared in 1860, when French and British forces looted and burned the Summer Palace just outside of Beijing at the end of the second Opium War.

Highest bidder?
Two bronzes, depicting the heads of a rabbit and a rat, were among 12 animal heads depicting the Chinese zodiac that were removed from a fountain at the Summer Palace. The bronzes were purchased by the French clothing designer Yves Saint Laurent, who died last June. Saint Laurent's friend and former business partner, Pierre Berge, is putting the bronzes on the auction block at Christie's on Monday. Each could go for as much as $10M.

Cultural riches.
Berge has steadfastly maintained that Saint Laurent obtained the bronzes legally, and there seems to be no question about that. But apparently that's not the point. Chinese media outlets are reporting that the artifacts should be returned as part of a 1995 agreement stating that that "any cultural object looted or lost because of reasons of war should be returned without any limitation or time span." The Chinese were offered the bronzes five years ago, but reportedly turned them down because the asking price for the pair was $20M. Five more bronzes have been located, purchased and returned to China. The whereabouts of the other five remain a mystery.

I think I like this guy...
Pierre Berge says he'll gladly return the bronzes the moment China embraces basic human rights and gives Tibet its freedom. "If they do that, I would be very happy to go myself and bring these two Chinese heads to put them in the Summer Palace in Beijing. It's obviously blackmail but I accept that." A judge in Paris is expected to hear a motion tomorrow to block the sale of the bronzes, but according to media reports, he's unlikely to stop the proceedings. UPDATE (2-23-09): The judge gave Christie's permission to go ahead with the auction. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=abiJtfqfSreU&refer=muse

What do you think?
When my kids were little, tugging back and forth on something, I'd say to one or the other, "Honey, if it's your sister's, give it back this instant and stop yelling over it." As an adult, an art lover and a respecter of cultures, I personally think the bronzes should go back to the culture that produced them.

But that Pierre Berge... how classically French his response is! You gotta love it.