Tea at Trianon: Things Our Parents Did

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Things Our Parents Did

From Positively Positive:

1. Send thank you notes. Hand written, delivered by the post office ones. I have been trying harder to make sure that I always do this. People really appreciate it.

2. Shake hands. Outside of the business world, people are not good at it at all. We are big huggers, so I don’t shake a lot of hands, but when I get one of those sad, limp ones, I wonder how depressed and unconfident that poor person must be.

3. Collect things, specifically when it comes to kids. When I was little, it was stickers; boys collected baseball cards or comics. When my dad was a kid, he pinned beautiful insect specimens to boards. Collecting teaches organization and responsibility. Today, kids collect video games that they treat poorly.

4. Stand up straight. It literally causes me physical pain to look at the way teenagers carry themselves today. My great great aunt was very tall for a woman when she was young, so she slouched on purpose. I knew her when she was in her nineties, and I saw the results of all of that slouching. The poor woman was hunched.

5. Have dinner parties. They are wonderful. Going out is fun, but there is nothing like having friends over for dinner.

6. Take walks. My husband’s grandparents habitually take a walk after dinner every night. It is such a great thing to do, if only for your own digestion. Our lives are busy, and it is hard to fit in…I know.

7. Have family reunions. When I was a kid, we planned big ones, and they were for that reason only. We got together in the summers just to have a family reunion. It was so much fun.

8. READ! It is my favorite thing! You are clearly reading right now, so maybe you read. Pick out one of your friends who doesn’t read, and buy them a book.

9. Spring clean. I really want to do this, and I have never actually organized a day when the whole family spring-cleans. Windows, floorboards, ceiling fans. Pulling out the stove and the fridge. It might even be worth it to get a few families together and take turns on houses. The guys could concentrate on the power washing and the lawn work.

10. Volunteer. (Read more.)

The North Coast said...: Strange, but in my highly diverse Chicago neighborhood, we do all of these things, except that the walks don't happen once the temperature drops below 40 F.; December 11, 2013 at 9:41:00 PM EST