2011 Streak Day 138: Run - 4.03 miles, Time - 37min 40sec, Weather - post-rain dampness
Today, on my travels, I was on the A30 and passed the Wentworth Golf Club, which is hosting the BMW PGA Championship next week. Already the signs are out to direct traffic and advertise the event, which is only to be expected. What is not to be expected is the idiocy of their slogan: "Joy reunited" under a picture of the last year's Ryder Cup team.
What on earth is that supposed to mean? The idea of joy being divisible or something that can be taken apart and put together like Lego is very strange, bearing no relation to the nature of the emotion. Now you can lose your joy and then find it; you can discover your joy or even rediscover it; or you can simply feel it. What you cannot do is unite it.
This bugged me as I drove along (I could not make sense of it and I tend to worrit when things do not make sense). When I got home I looked at the European PGA site to see if the slogan was some form of golf imbecility but they are not to blame - it is the current advertising campaign of BMW. For a microsecond I felt like a bit of an idiot for not recognising this (my interest in high-end cars is vanishingly small) but after that passed I started to worry about the way companies try to appropriate words and phrases.
The most obvious example is 'I'm lovin it', which is registered as a trademark of McDonalds even though the phrase was in use long before it was attached to a hamburger. Boing Boing has an example of a company trying to stop people using the phrase 'urban homestead' or 'urban homesteading'. The company even has claims on the phrase 'path to freedom'.
Claiming ownership of a generally understood concept or well used phrase is pernicious.
My guess is that it would be impossible for BMW to trademark the word joy but they obviously want us to associate it with their cars. If Joy is BMW then Joy is diminished.
My own joy might well have been diminished when I reached home because it started to rain and I had still to go for a run; but I quite like running in soft rain (soft being an important proviso). However the best time is when it has just stopped and the sun has come out. The smells are more distinct and you can sense all plant life has been refreshed.
Today's picture is of water droplets on acer leaves.
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