Sunday, April 17, 2005

Where My Blog Title Comes from...

....in case you were wondering.

...there is a series of phenomena of great importance which cannot possibly be recorded by questioning or computing documents, but have to be observed in their full actuality. Let us call them the imponderabilia of actual life. Here belong such things as the routine of a man's working day, the details of his care of the body, of the manner of taking food and preparing it, and of passing sympathies and dislikes between people; the subtle yet unmistakable manner in which personal vanities and ambitions are reflected in the behaviour of the individual and in the emotional reactions of those who surround him. (from Argonauts of the Western Pacific, by Bronislaw Malinowski, pp. 18-19).

Could apply to anthropology, could apply to observing your own life and blogging about it. I just like the word "imponderabilia" a lot, anyway. :)