Family Event
Michal Samama
*
“In Paris, there is a street; in that street, there is a house; in that house, there is a staircase; on that staircase, there is a room; in that room, there is a table; on that table, there is a cloth; on that cloth, there is a cage; in that cage, there is a nest; in that nest, there is an egg; in that egg, there is a bird.
The bird knocked the egg over; the egg knocked the nest over; the nest knocked the cage over; the cage knocked the cloth over; the cloth knocked the table over; the table knocked the room over; the room knocked the staircase over; the staircase knocked the house over; the house knocked the street over; the street knocked the town of Paris over.”
(Children’s song from Les Deux-Sevres, Paul Eluard, Involuntary poetry and Intentional poetry.)
I was reminded of this poem quoted in Georges Perec’s The Species of Space and Other Pieces.
Covid, then lockdown, then social distancing, Zoom talks, then type 1 diabetes, Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Weizmann city mall just nearby, underground parking lots, our rebirth, Insulin shots, monitoring, details and more details, relentless toothache, I lost my keys and glasses in the space of one week. And also: "Mom, I'm scared," "Sing me songs that scare away the fear."
I left the company for the sake of the family event in the swoop of one WhatsApp message: “Dear, we’re in the E.R. It will take some time to get back to normal”.
A few weeks later Ido called and suggested I talk to Dudi..
Dudi said: “The Here and Now needs no rehearsals”.
We met via zoom, in its infinite spaces.
Family and friends from the company came to visit.
I read:
“We always think of imagination as the faculty that forms images. On the contrary, it deforms what we perceive; it is, above all, the faculty that frees us from immediate images and changes them”. (Gaston Bachelard)
The bird knocked the egg over; the egg knocked the nest over; the nest knocked the cage over; the cage knocked the cloth over; the cloth knocked the table over; the table knocked the room over; the room knocked the staircase over; the staircase knocked the house over; the house knocked the street over; the street knocked the town of Paris over.”
(Children’s song from Les Deux-Sevres, Paul Eluard, Involuntary poetry and Intentional poetry.)
I was reminded of this poem quoted in Georges Perec’s The Species of Space and Other Pieces.
Covid, then lockdown, then social distancing, Zoom talks, then type 1 diabetes, Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Weizmann city mall just nearby, underground parking lots, our rebirth, Insulin shots, monitoring, details and more details, relentless toothache, I lost my keys and glasses in the space of one week. And also: "Mom, I'm scared," "Sing me songs that scare away the fear."
I left the company for the sake of the family event in the swoop of one WhatsApp message: “Dear, we’re in the E.R. It will take some time to get back to normal”.
A few weeks later Ido called and suggested I talk to Dudi..
Dudi said: “The Here and Now needs no rehearsals”.
We met via zoom, in its infinite spaces.
Family and friends from the company came to visit.
I read:
“We always think of imagination as the faculty that forms images. On the contrary, it deforms what we perceive; it is, above all, the faculty that frees us from immediate images and changes them”. (Gaston Bachelard)