But does happiness need to be based on truth? Might I pretend? Might imagination compensate for black skies where the Malverns ought to be, a frosty nip round my kidneys as I reach up to open the garage door.
It's not as easy as I thought. Being cheered at Covent Garden for my Leporello doesn't match up to the tiny increments of progress I may reasonably expect at singing lesson, only 2½ hours away at this very moment. Receiving an enormous cheque at Stockholm, strapped into a starched shirt-front, is not as much fun as re-shaping this present sentence - which itself is not exactly happiness, more a mild pleasure in seeing my fingers working at the keyboard.
Let’s widen the scope, somewhat.
I'm sharpening scissors with which Meryl Streep will later humiliate Donald Trump. (Hey, just his trousers, for goodness sake! Let's not go to extremes!) That's better.
I'm in a broom closet in 10 Downing Street, swinging a pendant in front of Theresa May's transfixed eyes, saying over and over, "It won't work." After half an hour she stumbles out on her stilettos, saying: "You know, I don't think it will." Way to go.
It's 1969 and I'm magically - and temporarily - encased in the body of Eddie Merckx, the year he won the general classification, the points classification and the mountain classification in the TdF. Merckx is Belgian, by the way. An unfavoured race.
My singing voice feels stronger and the Malverns are now visible.
Way to go! I shall elaborate later. Too tired today.
ReplyDeleteWay to go! I shall elaborate later. Too tired today.
ReplyDeleteI love a man with a strong singing voice! Prost!
ReplyDeleteMalvern ... I've got to go look that one up ...
Sabine: I'm still waiting.
ReplyDeleteRw (zS): It's a boutique-y town on the slopes of a whaleback of eponymous hills. I can see the hills from my atelier.
It's the broom closet. Excellent approach.
ReplyDeleteThe scissors thing has a long tradition here in the Rhineland during Karneval and in our city in particular. The fifth season as it is called is fast reaching its mad and chaotic and very noisy peak event Weiberfasnacht on Feb 8th this year - Karneval dates depend on Easter.
"Weiberfastnacht is an unofficial holiday in the Rhineland. At the majority of workplaces, work ends before noon. Celebrations start at 11:11 am. In comparison with Rosenmontag, there are hardly any parades, but people wear costumes and celebrate in pubs and in the streets. Beueler Weiberfastnacht ("women's carnival in Beuel") is traditionally celebrated in the Bonn district of Beuel. The tradition is said to have started here in 1824, when local women first formed their own "carnival committee". The symbolic storming of the Beuel town hall is broadcast live on TV. In many towns across the state of North Rhine Westphalia, a ritual "takeover" of the town halls by local women has become tradition. Among other established customs, on that day women cut off the ties of men, which are seen as a symbol of men's status. The men wear the stumps of their ties and get a Bützchen (little kiss) as compensation." (Wikipedia)
Sabine: I wonder if my suggestion was partly sub-conscious. I remember, long ago, seeing film of ties cut off but didn't know the reason. An admirable reminder to all men, especially at the moment when male status in the world (viz. Weinstein then the gymnast coach) could not be lower.
ReplyDeleteI weep but am lucky in having Mozart and Schikaneder to sustain me:
PAMINA (a woman)
In men who feel love,
a good heart, too, is never lacking
PAPAGENO (a fella)
Sharing these sweet urges
is then woman's first duty
BOTH
We want to enjoy love
it is through love alone that we live
PAMINA
Love sweetens every sorrow
every creature pays homage to it
PAPAGENO
It gives relish to the days of our life
it acts in the cycle of nature
BOTH
Its high purpose clearly proclaims:
there is nothing nobler than man and woman.
Inevitably, and as you will know, it is better in German:
Mann und Weib... und Weib und Mann. Reichen an die Gottheit an...