For those who write in coffee shops... "It was a pleasant cafe, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old water-proof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a cafe au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write." ~ Ernest Hemingway
Ah, about me... sort of....
Dearest Barbara,
Old friend is really fine. as in Old. Kind of a badge by this time, since ( I don't know about you) but ... it's getting more obvious to other people, I guess. I think it doesn't show and then someone treats me like an elderly person such as exaggerated politeness or immediately comes to my aid by opening a door for me etc... and never thought I'd say this, it's ok. At least I'm not totally ignored like I have been previously when it become more and more evident I wasn't "meat market" material and in the wrong category as a "babe." I consider the opposite: I visited Poland last summer - Warsaw, Krakow. mmmm what a nasty time I had bump bump bumping my 2 bags up the Stalinist monstrosity looooong flight of monolithic stairs to the upstairs platform where the trains were at the (non-local) train station in Warsaw. No one helps anyone in Poland. Not even old ladies!! Poles I passed on the street and encountered in all other ways were truly not friendly, unsmiling, unresponsive, impassive facial expressions, no smiles. Yikes, so my Krakow guide - PhD in Holocaust studies, splendid English and friendly and really really cool looking, explained to me somewhat testily that communism was to blame. No one knew when they might be arrested so apparently acted zombies like in public. Besides, he said, Americans are considered naive because they smile at strangers. And given the way some people in E Europe like to take your money right out of your hands,and there is no such thing as a "lost and found" anywhere. Just found and no return. I agreed with him. After reading up on the subject and talking to Lucinda about her experiences as a visiting speech pathologist in Mostar, Bosnia (we stayed in Dubrovnik together with her beautiful son, Olin) - my conclusion so far is the so called "communist regime" dictatorship created people who think, thought, the government will do it. Everything from simple fixes on toilets (pull up the plunger yourself) to helping old ladies with heavy bags down the steps of buses. The government didn't (doesn't) do it, hence disgusting overflowing toilets in top restaurants etc. Bombed out roofs that stay that way for 16 years (Slovakia) etc. In Croatia they expected customers to walk out of restaurants without paying.If a customer succeeds in walking out as expected, the waiter, server "gets in lots of trouble." There is no expectation of honesty on the part of the customer - or anyone for that matter. In a communist country (the one's I visited) it's my impression that personal responsibility is, well... not a value.
In short, being old in the USA seems OK. Now this is coming from me - a believer in socialism. Poland to me was a cautionary tale. I also visited Slovakia and Hungary. It seemed that the youth in Slovakia and Hungary was different. Teenagers genuinely helped me, not expecting anything. They even smiled! Just impressions. What are yours? You've been all over!!
Yes, the caribou is a reminder of what is, I agree. The plaintive part of this picture is to me the suggestion of life lived in freedom with only nature and natural predators of equal power, then... humans in their most monstrous form. The beauty of the caribou just standing there suggests one moment of purity.
About going to NY. Yes, maybe. I want to visit Lapland - the Kola Peninsula and Murmansk Russia (if I can) this summer. Research for my book. Maybe I can stop over in NYC and visit. Would you be around? Hey, Girl, wanna go with me to Finland and Russia?
Old friend is really fine. as in Old. Kind of a badge by this time, since ( I don't know about you) but ... it's getting more obvious to other people, I guess. I think it doesn't show and then someone treats me like an elderly person such as exaggerated politeness or immediately comes to my aid by opening a door for me etc... and never thought I'd say this, it's ok. At least I'm not totally ignored like I have been previously when it become more and more evident I wasn't "meat market" material and in the wrong category as a "babe." I consider the opposite: I visited Poland last summer - Warsaw, Krakow. mmmm what a nasty time I had bump bump bumping my 2 bags up the Stalinist monstrosity looooong flight of monolithic stairs to the upstairs platform where the trains were at the (non-local) train station in Warsaw. No one helps anyone in Poland. Not even old ladies!! Poles I passed on the street and encountered in all other ways were truly not friendly, unsmiling, unresponsive, impassive facial expressions, no smiles. Yikes, so my Krakow guide - PhD in Holocaust studies, splendid English and friendly and really really cool looking, explained to me somewhat testily that communism was to blame. No one knew when they might be arrested so apparently acted zombies like in public. Besides, he said, Americans are considered naive because they smile at strangers. And given the way some people in E Europe like to take your money right out of your hands,and there is no such thing as a "lost and found" anywhere. Just found and no return. I agreed with him. After reading up on the subject and talking to Lucinda about her experiences as a visiting speech pathologist in Mostar, Bosnia (we stayed in Dubrovnik together with her beautiful son, Olin) - my conclusion so far is the so called "communist regime" dictatorship created people who think, thought, the government will do it. Everything from simple fixes on toilets (pull up the plunger yourself) to helping old ladies with heavy bags down the steps of buses. The government didn't (doesn't) do it, hence disgusting overflowing toilets in top restaurants etc. Bombed out roofs that stay that way for 16 years (Slovakia) etc. In Croatia they expected customers to walk out of restaurants without paying.If a customer succeeds in walking out as expected, the waiter, server "gets in lots of trouble." There is no expectation of honesty on the part of the customer - or anyone for that matter. In a communist country (the one's I visited) it's my impression that personal responsibility is, well... not a value.
In short, being old in the USA seems OK. Now this is coming from me - a believer in socialism. Poland to me was a cautionary tale. I also visited Slovakia and Hungary. It seemed that the youth in Slovakia and Hungary was different. Teenagers genuinely helped me, not expecting anything. They even smiled! Just impressions. What are yours? You've been all over!!
Yes, the caribou is a reminder of what is, I agree. The plaintive part of this picture is to me the suggestion of life lived in freedom with only nature and natural predators of equal power, then... humans in their most monstrous form. The beauty of the caribou just standing there suggests one moment of purity.
About going to NY. Yes, maybe. I want to visit Lapland - the Kola Peninsula and Murmansk Russia (if I can) this summer. Research for my book. Maybe I can stop over in NYC and visit. Would you be around? Hey, Girl, wanna go with me to Finland and Russia?
