I still have one more day to prepare my speech for the Jehovah's witnesses ladies.
But what I wanted to write about today is still related to religion.
Long story short - I came to be owner of a very large icon which sadly has no place in my home. I thought of going to the church and giving it away to someone who might appreciate it better. Which I did. I got sidetracked (as I usually do) and instead of giving it to an older and rather poorer lady, the icon ended up in the hands of a horrendous lady whose daughter is both a dentist and a princess (I kid you not, I have her business card, which reads First Name - PRINZESSIN - Last Name, the last name having a posh sound about it), and she wanted to thank me by getting me to be her dentist daughter's client. I managed to dodge that one quite swiftly (that is only because I was completely unaware of her intention), but when she asked for my phone number, I could find no reason to refuse her. So I gave it to her.
As you may suspect, the hag called me. She interrogated me for some ten minutes.
Here I must explain something to you: I am getting more and more like my grannie every day. If you ask my grandmother a question, she feels compelled to provide you with practically every little detail she can think of related to the subject matter. For example, the phone rings and someone asks to talk to my dad. Instead of saying simply 'He is not at home', my gran starts giving full details about his daily routine, his job, his office, the car he drives and when he actually left that morning, blah, blah. You get the picture. I used to get pissed when she would give me away on certain occasions, but mostly I was very amused by this habit of hers. Now, I find myself being more and more like her! Count on me to share most unusal and often inappropriate details, the difference between me and gran being only that I have to be asked for such details, I (for the moment) do not offer them unprompted for.
So, coming back to the hag. She first mistook me for my mother, because I only said 'Alo?' - it is what is most often said in Romania and I consider it quite appropriate to continue to do so. Obviously, since I said 'alo', I had to be my mother. Then she proceeded to ask me about the icon, not without first telling me the current whereabouts of said icon, if you must know it is located in the 'children's room', she had three grandsons and they come sometimes and sleep over and there it where the icon hangs now. So, what she wanted to know was a) when it was given the holy rite by the priest (says so on the back); b) where (still on the back, really, just take a look); c) how long have I had it for (sorry, WHA'??).
Then she wanted to know (stream of conscience following) how long have we been here in Germany, have we been to the church before, 'cause the priest there does not know us, she asked him if he gave the holy rites to the icon, he said no (I wonder if it was before asking him if he knew us...), he gave such rites to some icons before, but those were sold for the benefit of an orphans' shelter in Romania, don't we go to church (you might think we met at the pub), that was her first time she went to the church after two months spent back in Romania (I SO wanted to know that, it was vital for my well being), where did we come from, do I have a job, why not, what is my profession, don't I want to get a job (she was not interested in offering me tips to get a job, no, she was just curious to know if I like being a lousy Hausfrau or if I intend to finally work for a living)... And THIS is where I finally caught a brake and said good bye.
Typical old nosey parker behaviour!
I resisted bravely to giving away to many details and I am very impressed by myself. It was also helpful to have some ten little bells ringing viciously in my head at each of her questions and I think it has something to do with her, she was the one who got the bells ringing, she is the busybody pushing all buttons at once.
But this got me thinking - why, oh, why do older ladies have such an effect on me? I feel like a 6 year old all over again! They inspire me the same disgruntled respect and need to tell the truth when asked, but only when I think it is what they want to hear. Sheesh...
Aaanywho. The shops started hanging Christmas decorations two weeks ago. We had the first snow last week. I guess next week it's time for ol' Christmas radio to start playing again. But the iTunes are conspiring against it. Have no fear, I will find a way.
And for the musical end, I leave you with a newly discovered band HURT and their heartfelt 'World Ain't Right'.
Showing posts with label old generations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label old generations. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Latest Lazlo's lament - end of a generation
Pre Scriptum: I wrote this post last week. I intended to edit it further. I no longer feel like. So here it is.
So, as I have said before, my friend laments the end of a generation that was before his. Apparently, Clint Eastwood's latest movie deals precisely with this topic. I did not have a chance to see it, it hasn't come here yet.
But this is too good a topic for me to pass on. Especially since the old generations dying in the corner of the world I come from have things in common and things that set them apart from the old generations that die out in the US.
The sense of right and wrong, the responsibility of doing the proper thing, the sense of community and family, the sense of shame (which I have to say that nowadays is almost completely lost), these are common on both sides of the pond.
Nevertheless, the old generations from Eastern Europe differ from the Western world, and this major difference comes from the long reign of communism in that part of the Earth. Here I must confess something: I am very sick and tired of talking and hearing about the "plague of communism", I lived 17 years in the post-"revolutionary" Romania and heard almost everything there was to be said about communism, not to mention having lived for 14 years the plague itself.
Still, despite this sickness and tiredness, I realize how people who have not lived it, share my feelings towards such discussion, but in fact have no clue about what communism was or felt like. Here I include people from capitalist countries and people born in the 90s.
I do not intend to get into the details of how it was to live in fear of making the wrong joke about you-know-who, you had to be rather stupid to make jokes like that in a inadvisable company, and traitors have been around and even took friendly forms since the beginning of time. I will only remind the following: seeing oranges and bananas once a year (the lucky ones, I mean); having the right to buy one half of loaf of bread per day, one kilo of sugar and one liter of oil per month; having loads of shops with nothing in them (literally, food stores with empty shelves); the cold that froze the crummy apartments in gray blocks of flats (which still stand); the abortion decree that was valid for some 20 years and led to almost an entire generation of unwanted children, starved for food and love; the entire network of lies that made up our lives at the time... These lies are the ones that affected us most. They took out the friggin' F out of LIFE and made it a plain LIE. These lies shaped so much the mentality of parents and children that they became a way of living. And now, people cannot tell the real from the fake, they keep waiting for the State to help them out, they still follow the same adagio of "we pretend to work, they pretend to pay us".
This is why the older generation saw its principles twisted and ended up bringing up many younger generations in pretty much the same way. Now we witness "evil and fake" inherited and passed on, in improved ways, from father to son. The generation that held on to their beliefs and minded their business and tried to do right was beaten up and shackled to the ground. It was an obvious conclusion that having principles was not really useful.You could get by easier if you did not have them. So it is easy to understand the erosion of the family and community, of the moral rules of conduct, process that unfortunately takes less time than one might imagine.
And when there aree nincompoops breeding, we can't really expect too much, can we now?! But in this respect, I couldn't really tell the difference between former-communist nincompoops and capitalist nitwits. Because, at the end of the day, the problem is the same: generations of youngsters more able to socialize online than in person, who think that school is for morons and milk comes from the microwave, who want all rights and no obligation. More frightening is that they believe that their chance in life is winning American Idol or America's Next Topmodel or Bachelor or any other similarly contest. Not that I don't watch some of these shows, I do. But there are very few who have talent and deserve a chance at fame, and a whole lot of the contestants just make pathetic fools of themselves. And they are the ones who grow up thinking thin is beautiful, rich is happy and brand is life. Which, in my old fashion opinion, is wrong.
Thankfully, I have succeeded in life in making friends with like-minded people who give me back the hope that I am not completely right. And if this group of friends exist, then maybe we are not alone. Maybe it is just the media's fault, people are just people as they have always been, only that now we are being repeatedly told about the human nature. Maybe shallowness is more often met than we would like. Maybe, with this overpopulation, this is just nature's mechanism to regulate this issue, cretins are to be eliminated just like bad skin peeling away after an overexposure to the sun. Maybe this is just my wishful thinking.
Nevertheless, despite my pessimism (which I like to call realism, because whenever something good could happen, it rarely does, and when something bad could happen, then it will almost surely will - little theory that saves me heartbreak sometimes), I want to believe that each generation has something good in it, even though we might not always know what. And I firmly believe that life always compensates everything, even though we might not want or like. This is why I trust the superior authority on this. From what I read and watched in the movies, I think I would have liked the 20s and its folies. From what I have lived, now it's not that bad either after all. Just do the Monty Python thing.
So, as I have said before, my friend laments the end of a generation that was before his. Apparently, Clint Eastwood's latest movie deals precisely with this topic. I did not have a chance to see it, it hasn't come here yet.
But this is too good a topic for me to pass on. Especially since the old generations dying in the corner of the world I come from have things in common and things that set them apart from the old generations that die out in the US.
The sense of right and wrong, the responsibility of doing the proper thing, the sense of community and family, the sense of shame (which I have to say that nowadays is almost completely lost), these are common on both sides of the pond.
Nevertheless, the old generations from Eastern Europe differ from the Western world, and this major difference comes from the long reign of communism in that part of the Earth. Here I must confess something: I am very sick and tired of talking and hearing about the "plague of communism", I lived 17 years in the post-"revolutionary" Romania and heard almost everything there was to be said about communism, not to mention having lived for 14 years the plague itself.
Still, despite this sickness and tiredness, I realize how people who have not lived it, share my feelings towards such discussion, but in fact have no clue about what communism was or felt like. Here I include people from capitalist countries and people born in the 90s.
I do not intend to get into the details of how it was to live in fear of making the wrong joke about you-know-who, you had to be rather stupid to make jokes like that in a inadvisable company, and traitors have been around and even took friendly forms since the beginning of time. I will only remind the following: seeing oranges and bananas once a year (the lucky ones, I mean); having the right to buy one half of loaf of bread per day, one kilo of sugar and one liter of oil per month; having loads of shops with nothing in them (literally, food stores with empty shelves); the cold that froze the crummy apartments in gray blocks of flats (which still stand); the abortion decree that was valid for some 20 years and led to almost an entire generation of unwanted children, starved for food and love; the entire network of lies that made up our lives at the time... These lies are the ones that affected us most. They took out the friggin' F out of LIFE and made it a plain LIE. These lies shaped so much the mentality of parents and children that they became a way of living. And now, people cannot tell the real from the fake, they keep waiting for the State to help them out, they still follow the same adagio of "we pretend to work, they pretend to pay us".
This is why the older generation saw its principles twisted and ended up bringing up many younger generations in pretty much the same way. Now we witness "evil and fake" inherited and passed on, in improved ways, from father to son. The generation that held on to their beliefs and minded their business and tried to do right was beaten up and shackled to the ground. It was an obvious conclusion that having principles was not really useful.You could get by easier if you did not have them. So it is easy to understand the erosion of the family and community, of the moral rules of conduct, process that unfortunately takes less time than one might imagine.
And when there aree nincompoops breeding, we can't really expect too much, can we now?! But in this respect, I couldn't really tell the difference between former-communist nincompoops and capitalist nitwits. Because, at the end of the day, the problem is the same: generations of youngsters more able to socialize online than in person, who think that school is for morons and milk comes from the microwave, who want all rights and no obligation. More frightening is that they believe that their chance in life is winning American Idol or America's Next Topmodel or Bachelor or any other similarly contest. Not that I don't watch some of these shows, I do. But there are very few who have talent and deserve a chance at fame, and a whole lot of the contestants just make pathetic fools of themselves. And they are the ones who grow up thinking thin is beautiful, rich is happy and brand is life. Which, in my old fashion opinion, is wrong.
Thankfully, I have succeeded in life in making friends with like-minded people who give me back the hope that I am not completely right. And if this group of friends exist, then maybe we are not alone. Maybe it is just the media's fault, people are just people as they have always been, only that now we are being repeatedly told about the human nature. Maybe shallowness is more often met than we would like. Maybe, with this overpopulation, this is just nature's mechanism to regulate this issue, cretins are to be eliminated just like bad skin peeling away after an overexposure to the sun. Maybe this is just my wishful thinking.
Nevertheless, despite my pessimism (which I like to call realism, because whenever something good could happen, it rarely does, and when something bad could happen, then it will almost surely will - little theory that saves me heartbreak sometimes), I want to believe that each generation has something good in it, even though we might not always know what. And I firmly believe that life always compensates everything, even though we might not want or like. This is why I trust the superior authority on this. From what I read and watched in the movies, I think I would have liked the 20s and its folies. From what I have lived, now it's not that bad either after all. Just do the Monty Python thing.
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