I sat for a while in the sun beside a long pond by the Branicki Palace. It reminded me of the duck pond by the Madison Arboretum we used to take the kids to.
If you slow down enough, while it's true less happens, what happens is different. And you can't get to it without slowing down. It's the difference between charging through the woods, or sitting down and quietly watching. Letting things happen rather than making them happen.
A little toddler bends over to grab a handful of rocks from the path and throw them at a butterfly, then stands astonished watching as the butterfly flies off before he could let loose his stones... Is it in his genes -- on the Y chromosome? -- this adventure called "throwing"? It's a message from me to that other big scary place called not-me, a note to not-me to watch out. For the very reason another boy, a little later, chases some ducks with a stick -- because he can, and because not-me reacts.
It will likely take him the better part of his life, if he ever does, to learn that the ducks really don't give a f---. They have other, more important things to attend to. A little boy with a stick leaves very small ripples on
A baby carriage goes by on three wheels. I glance up the path and see the other wheel, hail the family and they fix the carriage.
A ten-year old? chubby girl stops by to point out she's managed to get the bottom of her skirt wet. She tries to start up a conversation. I explain I don't understand Polish, so she wanders over to the next bench, lies down and farts loudly, for a while and finally starts to sing some silly nonsense. I think she thinks I'm very exotic, and would like to interact with me, but doesn't know how.
But the ducks here, as everywhere, climb now and then out of the water to preen, spreading oil from their oil gland under their tail all over their chest and belly, finicky that every feather be properly moussed-in-place.
Two teenage boys practice swordsmanship with homemade wooden swords. They're pretty good. It's a natural progression from throwing rocks & chasing ducks with a stick, to testing yourself against another Other, who shows more interest in your skills than a butterfly or duck. Deuce game. Service!
The young folk here, less formal than their elders, don't greet one another with "Dzien dobry." To them, it's "Chech." And bye! or byebye! isn't Dowidzenia, it's:
"Pa!", or "Papa!"
"A little boy with a stick leaves very small ripples on pond."
ReplyDeleteUntil that little boy grows up to be in charge of much bigger sticks.