By Donnie Moreland

Edited by Richelle McIntyre 

As I listen to Harriet Witley Rochefort, the author of French Fried, speak about Joie de Vivre, or the celebration of life,  I begin to inquire the nature of intimacy that exists in France.  There is a celebration of affection among couples that is expressed with a disregard for public perception. A public perception that agrees with the form of intimacy upheld by the culture Parisians subscribe to.  The notion that intimacy that is expressed in public spaces should be met with strict social sanctions doesn't exist in this country and we need not validate why it should.

                I am brought back to my night in a blues bar, le Ceavau des Oublittetters that took the place of a thirteenth century political prison. I watched as a younger Parisian couple danced suggestively for three hours. And what would have been expulsion from the institution in American was a general celebration of their sensuality; their romance.

                I inquire now, why Americans are ashamed to express their romance, sensuality and embrace their intimacy. However, when Americans do express affection to their partners, in public, it is to appease the sensibilities of their audience and not their partners. Hypothetically,  the concern of social sanctions derives from what is sacred in American Civic Religion. Public space has always been sacred. I provide the idea that some sectors of the American populous, especially religious conservatives, want to know that their space is not being infringed upon by others. And hypothetically, a couple kissing in the mall of a  predominantly conservative city in the Bible belt would invade that aforementioned space.

                While I sit and consider cultural divisions, I have come to empathize with the French. Public space is arbitrary and intimacy is sacred, inter personally. And while, there are philosophies of the Parisians that I disagree with, I adore their passion and hope we can spread the love back home.