The situation remains grim and the news on the radio is like giant black earwigs. At 8 o’clock in the morning it is time to give them “color! Color! ” I wrote here last week about the powerful poem “We farmers” by the Polish poet Tomaz Salamun, the end of which both words come from. But the energy of the letters is not quite enough. I need the city, people, impressions. I think about where I’m going for a moment and decide on Neukölln.
So much love and care in the dreary environment
When I arrive at Kottbusser Damm, I have to shake off the woes of the Schönleinstrasse underground station just as vigorously as the world situation on the radio before. I look around and am first pleased to see a young woman with a gaudy headscarf and red sneakers, who is carrying a bunch of parsley like a bouquet of flowers that she is about to hand over. The recipient could, for example, be the couple with the newborn who exudes more love and care than the bench on which the three of them sit can stand. It bends invisibly and without groaning.
An image like this, and the fact that similar scenes are taking place all over the world at the same moment, raises the question of how the same species is capable of waging wars and torturing animals. The question is an old acquaintance and some days I appreciate her persistent presence. Walk a bit with her or sit down with her in the café. Today I politely ask her to leave me alone. We’ll meet again, because I’ll never find an answer, that’s for sure.
Big questions are gladly discussed over dinner
I walk alone towards Hermannplatz, try successfully to ignore empty shops and look forward to new openings and well-attended consistency. My goal is the market, it has always been rich in stalls and booths, it sounds and smells different than the one in Weißensee, and many other things are for sale. On a falafel cart I am happy to see the words “Who am I?” Next to a printed chickpea ball and wonder whether the falafel is talking or whether the clientele should be stimulated to think about themselves. Definitely a big question for a quick bite. Whereby: haven’t people always been happy to address the big questions when eating? When I see the fruit and vegetable towers under a colorful awning, I think: no wonder. Where is more color? Colour!