ILLNESS

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02:03:2006 Entry: "Ann : Wow, I'm glad I read this..."

Wow, I'm glad I read this...

How to Change an Earring

and

How to Sit in a Chair

Glad to know I wasn't doing something wrong. Such useful information.

11 Comments

Thats too funny. In one of my home ec classes, the name was changed to something modern, ambiguous and non offensive, of course, we watched a video that taught how to properly sit in a chair in a skirt. You can't just plunk, it is smooth and sophisticated and polite. Anles crossed, off to the side.

Poise.

Make me BARF.

Posted by Dawn @ 01:26:2006:04:22 PM CST

How in God's (or some other worshipful diety) do you come by this stuff, Ann?

Posted by Dawn @ 01:26:2006:04:23 PM CST

LOL! OK, don't laugh, but I was researching how to properly dye my hair with Kool Aid (I want a few magenta-y colored streaks where it is grey. And then I found this Wiki site. I can't believe some of the How-To topics there!

Posted by Ann @ 01:26:2006:04:26 PM CST

I think there are some people on the planet who never sit in chairs. Odd that we think of them as very primative cultures - as though chairs somehow elevate us to higher levels of living and intelect.

In a way the chair is something like the wheel in the way it transforms and causes cultures to change.

Try to imagine how our society would continue to function without wheels or chairs? If we completely stopped using wheels or chairs we would become completely different as cultures instantly.

Posted by Stan @ 01:26:2006:08:54 PM CST

I like your thoughtful socio-anthropological insight, Stan, but comparing a chair to a wheel is like comparing New Kids on the Block to Pink Floyd.

I could completely do without chairs. I like to sit cross-legged. Notice how the chairs in our house (with the one exception of my computer desk chair upstairs) have all become holding places for stuff, meaning, we actually need more tables and desks to place stuff than we do chairs.

Wheels, on the other hand, if they ceased to exist, would be a major disaster for the survival of the human species at this point in time, not only in terms of transportation, although that would be a MAJOR factor and not just in terms of cars (but even a bicycle would not exist...no carts...no horse drawn carriages...sleighs, yes, well, sleighs would still exist as well as camel caravans) but in terms of all forms of technology and industry. There would be no cog.

Posted by Ann @ 01:27:2006:10:10 AM CST

Stan, I think you think too much, lol!

Nice analogy Ann.

Posted by Dawn @ 01:27:2006:10:19 PM CST

Chairs are just as important to the way we live as the wheel. The chair makes it possible for people of all ages to gather in public places. Think about all of the kinds of public places that would be limited to the young and strong without chairs. All lines of government and social orginizations would be radicaly transformed if chairs woure no longer used.

Without chairs we could only basicly function in some kind of monarchy and/or tribal orders. In these chairless social structures only the young and strong would be setting all policies and input from the very old or the physicaly disabled would mostly only happen at the family level.

Every level of social order is transformed by the seemingly insignificant chair, because the chair brings more minds to places in society where they have decision making input.

Posted by Stan @ 01:28:2006:05:59 PM CST

Have you ever watched those shows about tribal villages on The Discovery Channel? Elders in the village sit on the ground, just like the young and strong. Maybe chairs are keeping us stiff and rigid so that when we are old, we can't sit crosslegged, i.e., we get out of practice.

Is this an exercise in sarcasm? Because all this seems very Euro-centric of you and not at all like the Stan I *think* I know.

Posted by Ann @ 01:28:2006:06:05 PM CST

I don't understand why you are making a personal attack on me.

At no point did I ever suggest that having chairs or the wheel makes us in any way better.

I never made any bad commentary on any culture that does not have either chairs or wheels.

Never mind then.

Posted by Stan @ 01:28:2006:06:09 PM CST

It did sound like you were making a value judgment on other cultures in the way you praised the chair, saying that it equalizes the way young and old can partake in society does imply that other cultures that do not use chairs do not have that equality/diversity. Does that make sense?

And it sounds like you're the one who's coming down hard on ME.

Posted by Ann @ 01:28:2006:06:16 PM CST

I'm sorry - I shouldn't be so defensive. I really don't have a value judgement to make about whether any society is better off than any other.

The point I'm trying to make is that there is a difference and there are changes.

The only reason I think the point is of any importance is because we take things like chairs as though they are irrelivant.

Some of the most mundane and uninteresting objects have profound effects on our lives and we mostly fail to notice.

Posted by Stan @ 01:28:2006:08:51 PM CST

By Ann @ 15:28 PM CST:02:03:06 ..::Link::..

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