Here There and Everywhere

Expat wanderer

Naughty or Nice?

Blogger N. at One or the Other asks readers and visitors to vote on whether they are naughty or Nice? Blogger Fourme, rightly comments that we don’t have any definition of naughty or nice by which to define ourselves and that she will refrain from voting.

Most of the voters are naughty, by the way.

It gave me a big grin.

Isn’t “naughty” or “nice” greatly in the mind of the beholder?

Once, when I was the young wife of a young army officer, I got up my courage and wrote a letter to the editor. It turned out to be a controversial letter; I got one very sarcastic response from the authority I questioned, and then, a week later, all hell broke loose as readers from all over Europe bombed the one who replied. I felt scared, but a little proud to have raised the issue.

I was working in the library. THE COLONEL’S WIFE (that is how we thought of her) walked in and said to me “we don’t get our names in newspapers. It isn’t done.” And then she walked out.

Then I really felt scared. And I really felt naughty. And at the same time, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Sometimes, don’t you have to say something? When you see something that is not right? And is that really naughty?

January 10, 2008 Posted by | Adventure, Biography, Bureaucracy, Communication, Community, Cultural, ExPat Life, Generational, Germany, Relationships, Social Issues, Women's Issues | , , | 5 Comments