ESSAY

Everybody can joke and speak ironically about APA, but under one conditio sine qua non (lat): if he (or she) is not an APA member. Everybody can even pull up a skirt to it, but who wants to do it with 107 year-old lady? (I'm sorry, Hall G.S.)

But one can easily want it (after Mr. Raymond D. Fowler's description of APA in rose colours (http://www.apa.org/about/structure.html) with the expectations to see attractive figure of competition filling of a smart girl.

What a bitter disappointment expects him! How bad he will disappointed in his expectations! He will see legs, swollen after the long standing at attention, he will see knees with corn after long kneeling before the people who give grants and distribute funds, money, he will see the picture of venous haemostasia symptoms and thrombosis of financial arteries, he will see the thighs with the decorations of bureaucratic cellulites………………………………………

Let me stop describing the sights. In few words, that is the figure, which doesn't attract you with fresh youth.

Laugh at APA can everybody, if he (or she) is not an APA member. However, can the author of such jokes laugh at himself? Can the author to look at himself with humor? Maybe he lives in another dimension, in other areas of images, representations, ideas, values, in other sense structures and fields, in other semantic spaces, concepts, in other areas of ethic evaluations, conceptual schemes and abstract constructions? Maybe the author looks like a young moth? What moth? Haven't you heard this parable?

Once upon a time there lived two moths in a wardrobe, one was young, the other was old. Their life was peaceful, not hungry, quiet and imperceptible until the young moth wants to know what is there outside the wardrobe. "I'll fly outside the wardrobe, it is very interesting what is there outside the wardrobe. There is a world there, there are people there, they look so kind through the chinks in our wardrobe, so nice," - said one day the young moth to the old one.

The old moth answered to the young one: "Stay here, there is enough food here, it's so quiet, peaceful and warm here, nobody disturbs us. It's wonderful to live in the wardrobe!"

Yet the young moth didn't hear the old one and flew out of the wardrobe. It flew a lot and came back glad, happy and tired. It tells admired to the old moth: "Oh, how happy am I! I was met so warm by the men! I flew and flew and flew and flew around! I was a great success by the people and in their community! Everywhere I was met with the applause! They applauded and applauded and applauded to me!"

(c) Alexei Pestov,

April, 2000