Sunday, June 23, 2002
Today was the St-Jean Baptiste Day parade. They call it La Fête Nationale in French, which I don't really understand, as you have to be a nation to have a national holiday. I studied history at school, and it's pretty clear that there's never been a nation called Quebec. A bunch of colonists came from France and set up a colony here, called New France, then they lost a war with some other colonists from England, who eventually founded a huge nation called Canada, with a province in it called Quebec. So I guess the 'national holiday' is just wishful thinking, as though I decided to have a parade to celebrate the fact that I'm not pregnant. I should be getting the phone call tomorrow.
History is such a weird thing. They didn't have it thousands of years ago, before people could write. I mean, they had oral histories, but those tend to be more about mythologising than anything. It's the 'facts' and 'details' of modern history that cause so much trouble. Why should history be so important to people? I know there are lessons to be learned from history, but they're only the right lessons half the time, so why bother? It's like using a chainsaw which chops your leg off half the time. What's the point?
I'm ranting about this because la St-Jean always gets me in a ranty mood. Just look to the future, people! I studied art history and if there's one thing I learned it's that you shouldn't trust the opinions of historians. The further away in time an event is, the more it's just opinion, just myth, like those ancient oral histories. Past injustices, whether they be true or not, are in the past. You can't live in the past. You literally can't. The present and the future is where we live. And mine starts tomorrow with a phone call.
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posted by Sara 
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