Macron And The Secret Of Life

Macron And The Secret Of Life

I had proposed to Steve that we should have a meeting of the English conversation class at my house, for aperitifs, rather than in the room below the Mairie, and he agreed. So this evening we did it. It was a success in all respects, I think. Certainly everybody seemed to enjoy themselves, some staying for three hours and everybody for at least two. The food all got eaten (I hate left-overs from aperitif sessions), the wine supply was seriously diminished and the conversation never flagged. Most importantly, with a couple of minor lapses, everyone spoke English all the time. (I had threatened them with Wolof and Spanish as the only acceptable alternatives to English for the evening, sure that nobody spoke either.) Two-three hours solid of English was no mean feat for people who still find speaking English a challenge.. I felt I had to congratulate everyone. These are people who wanted more in life, but not financially.

It led me to reflect on life here. For me it is great; I love the locality, a lot of the people, the weather, the scenery, the local produce and the village life in general. But I am retired and can afford to indulge in all that. For a younger person the scene must be different. Younger people need to build a life and job opportunites and variety here are very constrained. Some, it seems, are content to just «get by». They survive economically on casual employment and are otherwise content just to enjoy the same good things that I do. But building a better life must be problematic. With just oneself to take care of there is little problem but if one wants to raise a family and give them a better life, how can it be done?

The problem is probably common in small rural communities across the world. Here it seems to coalesce into two distinct attitudes among the French to themselves and, indeed, to their new President. I have French friends who want things to stay very much as they are, because life as it is seems good to them. Others decry this, say the French are just dozing, and laud what they perceive as the anglo-saxon attitude of «get up and go». Some have commented on how the English (friends Jo and Steve and I) have invigorated the life of the village with our English conversation classes, organisation of ad hoc choirs, (English) floral displays and boules playing.

A contributing factor is certainly the oft-proclaimed north-south divide and from which you happen to originate; in other words, the weather. If the outlook is cold, wet and bleak, whatever you do you are not going to relax outside. Also you need to keep warm and you need the money to fund that, a considerable incentive to use initiatve and find paid work. This in turn, I feel, spills over into social life. Do you just accept what the commune offers for entertainment and interest or do something to add to it? So what is the secret for a satisfying life?

These dilemmas come together in Macron. My French friends seem to be ambivalent about him. He won the presidency primarily, I think, as the preferable alternative to Le Pen. What the French seem to find puzzling about him is that he has impeccable credentials for neither right nor left, which confounds their love of pure theory. His penchant for entrepreneurialship appeals to the right but he has socialist tendencies also. The left accept his socialist claims but deplore the entrepreneurial side. The big problem for the French, it seems, is that they can't place him anywhere in theory, neither fowl nor beast. But maybe, just maybe, that is exactly what France needs for a better life for its citizens. Whatever the future holds for French life, to the usual certainties of death and taxes can be added demonstrations and strikes as Macron attempts to make the changes he feels are necessary.