Pigeons and statues
“Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.”
— David Brent, Wernham Hogg
The ability to accept being the statue is called “æðruleysi” in Icelandic. What is the English word for that? I can’t recall anything that fits it exactly.
There is dignity in being the statue.
A statue is able to hold its head up high when the guano strikes.
A statue will accept almost anything.
(Much like a doormat, come to think of it.)
Let’s have some of that. Next time the pigeon swoops in … stand perfectly still. Grin and bear it. You know what to be.
Æðruleysi or bust!
September 6th, 2005 at 7:06 pm
what about the word “stoicism”… it´s close.
September 6th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
Perhaps “composure”, as in “the statue accepted the compost with composure”.
Takk fyrir að stytta mér stundir.
September 6th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
Stoicism is close in spirit, sure, but indifference to pleasure or pain is not really the meaning I’m looking for.
Composure must be it, I guess. I don’t know, I’ve always thought of that as “the state of being composed”, i.e. looking in control of oneself at a particular point in time (you lose your composure and you regain your composure, but all within a single occurrence) … whereas æðruleysi, to me, is the overall character trait of consistently keeping one’s composure through all, uh, compost incidents. Maybe it’s a non-distinction and I just need some sleep.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:48 am
That is not a pigeon – it is a wopping big seagull!