Hamlet:
O what a piece of work is man
… infinite in faculties...
We must concentrate on - and cherish - those differences.
For the first time I posted about suspicion. It's an abstract noun and I expected little response. But Colette - tangentially - said newness isn't one of her enthusiasms. "Even when I buy new clothes I tend to let them hang, unworn, in my closet for weeks while they become familiar."
I could not have predicted that. I celebrate its difference.
V, my singing teacher, Skypes me a lesson from her living room. I've sung beside the piano in that living room for more than four years. Yet seeing it on my monitor brings the faintest tinge of voyeurism. A different viewpoint. I glance at my score and V says - quite sharply - "Look up. I need to see your face." In a chicklit novel that would be banally interpreted. In a singing lesson the shape of my mouth announces what I'm doing wrong. Obediently I raise my head. Is that new to you?
A neighbour goes into hospital, not - thank God - with plaguey symptoms. I email him, hoping fervently he's getting better. But he's a cheerful soul and shrugs off health matters. Prefers to write about the final tense scene in Smiley's People, the eighties’ TV series. I'm better equipped to tackle that subject and I realise this is a direct result of his generosity of spirit. A revelation which arrives by the back door.
Did you expect me to write about these matters? I hope not.
Do you consider yourself to be an individual? Of course you do.
I am an individual only 1/8billionth of the humans on earth. Unique am I, but so much the same as so many. The only new clothes I have bought in years are jeans. Other than that, I wear hand-me-downs, and even those are starting to get too old. We are very important specks of dust in the universe.
ReplyDeleterobin andrea: I reckoned wearing hand-me-downs would make you unique in the USA. Well before The Plague most of my US friends would have been worried about the possibility of infection (It's why taking a bath - as opposed to a shower - terrifies them. Marinading in their own juices.)
ReplyDeleteBut handed down from who (or is it whom?)? A near relation? Someone poorer than you in the food chain? A patron of Goodwill (always assuming Goodwill exists). If you're short of a subject why not a sequence of photos wearing these hand-me-downs. With captions: Previously worn by X. Professional status Y. For Z years.
A Badge of Courage, you might say.
Hmm. Were those things true of the U. S. when you lived there? Thrift shops are everywhere. Having three children to educate, I've been an ebay and consignment shopper for many years. And who doesn't love a nice hot bath?
DeleteIt's absences that seem strange to me now. No volunteering schedule! No structure there. Skype for committees. A week off for my husband but we can't go to North Carolina and see about my mother.
The hand-me-downs I wear are from my sister and sister-in-law. Lucky for me, they both don't mind shopping, have very nice taste in clothes, and are my size! Yay! They save clothes for me that they know I'd like. I just don't like to shop for clothes.
Deleterobin andrea: There are two unwarrantable assumptions in life: that all women like shopping and all like chocolate. I am married to one who likes neither. What's strange is that time after time during the past sixty years we've met other women who found these antipathies impossible to believe. Especially chocolate. VR is subsequently in receipt of more and more expensive boxes on the basis that if enough money is spent the obstacle will be overcome. I provide a valuable service by hoovering up these unwanted sweetmeats. The repeated disappointments on the faces of the donors take us close to the edge of social rupture.
DeleteWell, in case you were wondering, I do like chocolate. I have a tiny piece after lunch (deep dark salted with butter) and a tiny piece after dinner (dark chocolate with almonds). Roger is more experimental with his chocolate choices. I never over-indulge... and that's true for our wine with dinner as well. Oh yes there's a name for me... a control freak. LOL!
DeleteMarly: Certainly people got uneasy when I talked about taking a bath. As I got uneasy when showers were discussed ("You can't read in the shower." left a lot of blank faces.) I had two daughters so perhaps I left at the right time. Having them educated didn't cost a bean.
ReplyDeleteWho used to organise the volunteering schedule? What are they presently doing? You have to admit: feeling strange is better than feeling dead.