Saturday 12 January 2008

Mind the kerb.



So - New Year, New Me.
What a ridiculous thing to say, I hear you mutter as you navigate your browsers off to Misssy M's blog instead. And although that would indeed be an excellent idea ( she is obviously far better at it than I am, and posts more than once every six months) please bear with me while I explain. Then you can mutter and navigate all you like.
The fact is, there is no new me - nor will there be. But hopefully I can continue my schedule of improvement through evolution, rather than resolution. I don't do resolutions. I never understood why a particular date should be the reason for self-improvement. Self-improvement surely doesn't need an external reason - it should be an ongoing logical development. I mean no-one actually thinks "I think I'll get worse at table-tennis this year", or "Must avoid Nana", or "Right, it's about time I forgot how to drive"
I sometimes think that we are born into life as if it were a newly laid stretch of concrete on the pavement. The important thing is what kind of mark you have made on it before you shuffle off the kerb at the other end after your three score and ten. What is left for those behind to see. Some of us go ahead and skip lightly over the surface, leaving barely a trace that we were ever there. Some of us make an effort to dig our heels in, pushing down at every step, making that effort to be seen, to be noticed, and to be remembered. Then of course some people trip on the shoelace of fate and fall face first right in it. They are called 'celebrities'.
I think I am a pusher. Perhaps not as determinedly clumping down with every step as some, but the effort is there nonetheless. So I do continually try to improve the impression that I make on life's pavement. To enbiggen* my mark on society. To embellish my legacy. Some of my previous attempts at this have been documented here, notably 'running without being chased' and 'self-improvement through violence'. I now have another one. I am learning Polish.
In truth I have been doing this for a while now, in fact I recently completed my first 10 week course, with another 10 about to start. Why Polish? It actually started as an idea through my current employment, as the area I work in has a high Polish population. Generally speaking, Polish people are quite reserved, and keep themselves to themselves. But all it takes is one little breakthrough, and they will be wonderfully friendly, courteous and generous. So I thought it would be a good idea to learn some little breakthroughs. While I realise this hardly makes me a UN Ambassador, even my awkward attempts at saying "Hello, how are you?"** etc have yielded results far in excess of my expectations. Fair enough an early attempt apparently actually came out as "Do you keep pigs here?" but when I get it right, these paltry few words have made me new friends, and in some cases have led to me being able to help those who otherwise would not have known that there was even help to be had. So now I'm thinking the more little breakthroughs the better - for the sake of a few hours a week, maybe just maybe my little dents in the concrete will be just a little bit more visible.

* it's a perfectly cromulent word...

** Dzien Dobry, Jak Sie Masz? (Jeen Dobreh, Yak See Mash?)