クリスマスの話題にはまだ少し早いのですが、このblogのタイトルにもなっているトナカイはサンタクロースの橇を曳く動物として知らない子供はいないでしょう（サンタクロースと空飛ぶトナカイと靴下とプレゼントとクリスマスツリーとひいらぎがいったいどうやって世界中に広まったのかは分かりませんが、このイメージが国や人種を超えて大変なポピュラリティを獲得していることは間違いなく感嘆すべきことです）。
ところで現実のトナカイはシカの一種で、写真の通り何よりも大きくて立派な角が特徴です。まるで木の枝です。クリスマスの夜空には赤い鼻が行く手を照らすようですが、この立派な角が歌われることなく、代わりにコミカルな赤い鼻がつけられたのはなぜなのでしょうか。
トナカイはシカ科では唯一雄雌ともに角を持ちます。角は雄同士の闘争のためだけでなく、雪を掘り起こして食物を獲得するための大事な道具だそうです。それを知らなくても、この姿を見るだけでトナカイを象徴するのは角なのだと思いいたります。
クリスマスカードにユーモラスに描かれるトナカイはよく真っ赤な大きな鼻をつけています。
これはこれで可愛らしいのですが、角のシルエットを強調するだけでぐっとそれらしくなります。
美しくデフォルメされていても、やはり肝心なのは角の部分です。
中にはこんなトナカイもいますが…
赤い鼻がつこうがつくまいが、やはりポイントはこの立派な角なのでしょう。
I spent about 10 years in Investment Banking or related business division, but to my real surprise, I'm going to be transferred to one of the headquarters division, HR. The upcoming change and new assignment are to be seen, but now I just feel sad to leave IBD where I grew up as a professional and had so many experiences including the hardest credit crisis as well as the recovery from it. I will miss it for a while.
Although, I always stay being a professional no matter where I go and I don't have to rewrite my profile here---"Working in financial industry", not "IBD".
Paris, November 2006
We see tons of statues in the squares, streets, parks, in all cities. Personally I don't especially feel interested in these monuments, aside from all due honor for them, maybe because they usually represent a certain historical, cultural or political memory (and I have not so much a historical/political interest as an aesthetic one.)
But the other day I took a walk around my old school and I found a statue of a British professor who pioneered the early age of architectural education there. The bronze gentleman was putting one hand in a pocket, holding a cigar in the other, and seemed relaxed, comfortable on the pedestal with elegant carvings. Unintentionally I sat on the pedestal and felt kind of nice. Sitting at the statue's feet was much better to look up him from a distance. This may be a good way to get familiar with a statue--- to be a part of it.
Autumn is time to change. Usually the changing climate and new-born air are much more obvious in spring after winter, but autumn is also for awesome change in colors everywhere and the golden harvest at the end of the year.
