I was cruising through all my "buddy blogs" the other day and had a thought. It seems to me that quite a lot of us are what I think of as the Duck Out Of Water type, in that we are, one way or another, out of our element. Most are living in a different place than they're used to, surrounded by people, landscape and customs that are new. Canadians in Georgia, Brits in France, Wives In The North, Californians in Kansas...ducks. out. of. water.
Then I started thinking of what an enduring motif this is across the board. Countless movies, books and plays have dealt with the befuddled (or even fuddled) transplant, sometimes sympathetically, but mostly as a source of a good laugh. City folk in the country. Rich people living poor. CEO's working in a hash house. Eddie Murphy trading pork bellies. There are too many examples out there to even contemplate. It's inherently comedic, especially when political correctness gets thrown out the window and the humor gloves really go on.
So do we blog to beat them to the punch? If we can admit to our little foibles and even have a chuckle over them, isn't that better than someone else laughing at us first? Sure, eventually we all start to feel that the new place is home, but isn't there always a part of us that will never lose the allegiance to the place we came from? That part of us that will always feel a little like an expat duck out of water? Or in my case, a palm tree on the prairie?
Just a thought.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
duck out of water
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8 comments:
You know, all my life I've always felt like a duck out of water, as have most of my friends. Always the weirdo with the jokes most people never got. Never saying the right thing. You're right. Those bloggers who I connect with (who have become friends) also seem this way. We've found each other, despite the distances, all part of this little community, this little part of the vast internet.
It's beyond marvelous, I think.
And we all seem to get each other's jokes.
(Me? I'm a liberal female doc working in a conservative small town with very few other women MDs I'm also a mossy Douglas Fir on the Northern Prairie. A duck among the cows. A city girl among the farms. But I'm not alone.)
I'm a British bulldog splashing about in a pond of Frogs.
It doesn't feel quite right but I keep splashing on, afraid of sinking.....
I'm not physically displaced I suppose, in that I still live in the town I grew up in, but I was always a duck out of water in my family.
I was the artsy one amongst the two footballers and the athlete.
The one that watched old movies, wore Doc Martins, wrote daft poems and didn't quite fit, while the others did the more 'regular' stuff. (Tough I love them all dearly and can see many similarities too.)
I like to think I was my own quiet rebellion, and I agree totally with Diana about the way blogging connects you to like minded people who 'get' you.
Quack.
(I'm being a duck.)
I think it's all about conflict. Our "out-of-placed-ness" means we have things to talk about, while at the same time relating to everything going on around us. After all, the most exciting stories always have some element of conflict, or a crisis, which the main characters need to deal with. That's where the story is.
I was always the odd duck out. Had the high IQ, had strange parents whom I rebelled against by wanting to be something normal (like a teacher), liked weird music. I agree with diana, we all seem to connect because we have that "other-ness" about us. Isn't it interesting that the odd ducks formed their own little social group?
first of all, I'm also Hufflepuff. I'm not the devoted (read obsessed)Potter fan you are, but for you, I did the test. I think the duck out of water concept is interesting. Are we truly out of our element, or are we just having different experiences. I think the mere fact that all the "ducks" have congregated on this pond is a testimony that somehow, there will always be a way to be connected- wherever you are and however you may be removed from your original element.
Sorry for being so late responding here - crazy work weekend. Thanks to all of you - partly for your comments, but mostly for GETTING IT. (I'd use italics instead of caps so you wouldn't feel like I was shouting at you, but I don't know how. So I'm not shouting, okay? I'm just font challenged). I think it's absolutley lovely that, whatever kind of tree of canine we are, that we've found each other.
So much of it is a state of mind to begin with. I've been kind of an odd duck before I even had dislocation to blame for it!
As always, you all help me get through my day and it's more appreciated than you know. diana, thrilled to have you here with us!
If I ever feel 'out of place' I always remember something my Dad told me when I was a little girl. If you laugh at yourself no-one will laugh 'at' you they'll all be laughing 'with' you.
akelamalu,
that's why we blog isn't it? to be the first one laughing...
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