Jupiter and Lady Gaga

Jupiter is the sobriquet of France’s new president, wunderkind Emmanuel Macron, and I was Lady Gaga during three hours in early June, although I was more gaga than lady.  I have not blogged for over a month, not for lack of inspiration but for lack of time.  My house in the south of France is high maintenance, and blogging takes a back seat to enjoying visitors’ company and nearby culture.

The French media has coined the Jupiter nickname and there are cartoons of Macron holding Jupiter’s signature forked lightning.  In opposition to his predecessor, gauche François Hollande, the new president exhibits poise and hauteur, as well as a Roman god-like assertiveness.  Actually, Zeus, Jupiter’s Greek equivalent, would be a more fitting nickname for Macron who was elected on a pro-Europe platform. Hasn’t an enamored Zeus abducted Europa?  So far, Western Europe seems infatuated with Macron.

In spite of this, Paris is not the new Mount Olympus.  Macron’s cabinet has been staffed with mostly unknown characters far less flamboyant than Jupiter’s nonfunctional family members.  Greek mythology is renowned for its collection of weirdos and the French congress has its lot of oddballs and crazy characters. Firebrand Marine le Pen, leader of the right wing National Front, could be a reincarnation of Circe ,a minor goddess and evil sorceress who handles poisons with gusto. There is also hard left, rabble rousing Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who as a modern Poseidon created many political earthquakes during the presidential campaign and woes to cause havoc in congress.

On July 5, Jupiter was at the top of his art when he delivered the eulogy for France’s true republican goddess, Simone Veil (1929-2017).  Mrs. Veil was three goddesses in one: Aphrodite (she was beautiful), Artemis (she shot with accuracy), and Hera (she resisted injury).  She had died a few days before and the French were mourning their most popular public figure, even more popular than singers and soccer players.  She had been a revered icon for over twenty years! The French loved her, may be as a way to atone for the wrongs of their parents' and grandparents' government which had sent her and her parents to death camps in 1944.  She will be buried in the temple dedicated to French gods, the Paris Panthéon where the illustrious and notable of the République rest.  She will join the likes of Alexandre Dumas, Voltaire, Victor Hugo and Marie Curie.

I have always felt admiration and deep gratitude for Veil’s work to legalize abortion (1974). Her aim was primarily to save the lives of poor women who had to resort to coat hangers to terminate their unwanted pregnancies.

I doubt that the real Lady Gaga deserves a spot in the Panthéon.  I am no Lady Gaga reincarnated as I was not really gaga but totally blank for about three hours. This episode of immediate memory loss is called Transient Global Amnesia TGA). TGA is a neurological disorder with the disruption of short term memory; its cause is still a mystery and fortunately TGA recurrence rate is low.  Although I did remember who I was, I could not figure out where I was; what was happening and why my friend Jackie was with me. I kept repeating the same question over and over again, I was disoriented but aware that something was wrong; I feared I was having a stroke. 

To this day I have no memory of what happened and what I did immediately before the episode.  Although TGA is a rare, once in a lifetime episode, it is a frustrating and scary experience.  There is a long list of possible triggers but none applied to me at the time. There seems to be a link between TGA and emotional distress, immersion in very cold or very hot water and rough sex.  Since people over 50 have a higher risk of TGA, take it easy folks.