Tuesday, July 01, 2008

headlines

"Now I've finally become myself." --Danish Tour de France winner, Bjarne Riis

i'd like to know who you were before, bjarne, if you only just became yourself. apparently that guy who doped himself silly and won the tour de france (in 1996, when doping was still ok) or the guy who last year admitted all that doping wasn't the real bjarne riis. what is up with that? when do people become who they are? aren't you just who you are and what you do is come to terms with it somehow?

i think this is a problem today. newspapers and magazines scream at us every day that we have to find ourselves, follow our true path, not to mention telling us constantly how stressed we are. quite frankly, it's all making me feel a bit lost and stressed out.

i'd like to think that i am who i am and that i've been me all along, i don't have to do anything special to become me, i just already am. there may be things that i'm not that happy to admit--
  • i procrastinate like crazy
  • i don't get enough exercise
  • that whole pageant thing in the early 90s
  • on occasion i drink a bit too much white wine
  • i have a tendency to lose myself in my work and forget about what's important (e.g. my family)
  • i have mental blocks that are hard to overcome (like this thing where i don't post stuff i've made on etsy)
however, all of these things are a part of who i am. it may be that i should work with them, but that too is part of who i am. i may change my habits, but i don't actually change who i am. as much as i might not like to admit it, in the early 90s, i had platinum blonde hair and entered beauty pageants. would i do that today? no way. but, it is a part of who i am today that i did that.

we may evolve, but we don't suddenly become ourselves, we just already are.

* * *
in denmark there is no separation of church and state. in fact, there is a state church. the danish people's church, which is a brand of lutheran protestantism. you can choose to pay church tax or not and thus are a member or not a member of the church. although not religious at all, i do choose to pay the church tax, mostly because i find it amusing that there are several ministers who have said that they're not really that sure about the whole god thing and especially not the bit about jesus. i think it's pretty cool to have ministers who express human doubt in this way. plus, i'm happy to have my tax kroner go towards the upkeep of the beautiful and charming churches around the countryside.

however, in today's newspaper, they have come with a new proposal. they will hold divorce ceremonies in the churches. with 50%+ divorce rates, the danish church recognizes that there is a need for people to part ways with as much ceremony as they wed. interesting concept. there is something comforting about ritual, so perhaps they're onto something. i wonder if people will spend as much on a divorce party? and what do you wear to your divorce ceremony? a black dress? or red? or purple?

* * *
that's enough headlines for today. i have an electrician working in the house and he keeps turning off the power, so i'll get this posted while i can.


3 comments:

Jeanie said...

Hello, Julie! Thanks for visiting The Marmelade Gypsy. I'm delighted to stop back and discover your wonderful blog and this extremely interesting post. I loved the part when you said what you were -- I liked that a lot, because I'm like that too. We all are -- some things are absolutely fabulous and some are less fab (well, I eat too much and I should exercise more and...), but all part of me! I shall return!

tangobaby said...

I love this post for so many reasons, but mostly because it is so honest and very real. I think that is amazing about the churches in Denmark and how open they are to change and adapting.

I hope your wrist is feeling better.

julochka said...

jeanie--thank you for stopping by!

tangobaby--thank you also for stopping by! i've seen your comments over on crumbs. my wrist isn't really better yet, but it's mostly because i haven't really stopped typing as ordered. :-)