- Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do. Jean-Paul Sartre, French author and existentialist philosopher, 1905-1980
... or not, if you don't really want to do anything ...
TIme for some serious blogging ... it's been a while since I've really
blogged, I mean, apart from sharing pictures and giving some sort of
report about where I've been geographically. Today was a special day,
one of those days that aren't "normal", whatever that means of course.
It's a Wednesday, a normal work day for normal people. But since I've
been freelancing for the past 8 months, I've gotten to appreciate that
I can use my time the way I want to or need to - especially since this
time is coming to an end this week. I'll start working as a "proper"
employee on Monday. Wednesday was one of the days I used to work for my
"other" clients, but since I already stopped doing business with them,
I decided to just enjoy life today.
First thing to do was to sleep in of course. I woke up around 8 but
probably stayed in bed until 9:30. The night before I had already made
a brunch date with an old friend of mine (actually, my very first
boyfriend of 8 years. We are still friends, and it's always nice
catching up). Afterward, I pushed my bicycle through the old part of
town, lingering in a few shops I had never checked out, including a
very nice jewelery shop. Then I went home, did some laundry, and
started on my first glass of rose wine. Around 3 p.m. I decided that
it's far too nice outside to just hang around at home, so I took two
books and headed to a new cute coffee shop called "Cafe Neptun" at the
Neptun fountain in a really nice part of the old town.
Why two books? Well, I couldn't quite decide whether I wanted to
continue with fiction or the philosophical book I had bought the other
day. My fiction book: "The Fuck up" by Arthur Nersesian. I had bought
it when I lived in London, in a book shop that belonged to an
independent movie theatre. It's about a guy who lives in New York,
loses his job, gets kicked out by his girlfriend and lives as a street
bum. A story that could probably happen today just the same way, only
that this one is playing in the 80s. The other book is a German book
called "Wer bin ich und wenn ja, wie viele?" (Who am I and if yes, how
many?) by Richard David Precht, also called "a philosophical journey",
basically a book about all the famous life questions like "What is
"me"?", "Why do we want to own stuff?", "What makes us happy?" etc.
It's very well written.
When I reached Cafe Neptun I ordered a mozzarella and tomato salad and
a beer
and continued reading the philosophical book. It was just
perfect: the late afternoon sun was warming my back, the Neptun
fountain was making its trickling sounds right next to me, there were
just enough people to make it cozy but not too loud, and I was
thoroughly enjoying the fact to just read, relax and drink in the
middle of a normal work day. After about an hour some guy walked up and
asked whether he could sit at my table since it was in the sun and the
rest was already taken anyway. Well, what can you say ... you say "yes,
sure" while thinking "oh man, I hope he won't bug me now." Sure thing,
he asked me whether he was disturbing and said something along the
lines of "nice weather today." So here I was, thinking "damn, here we
go." I've already had a beer and a few sips of white wine Schorle
though, so I was nice and said something like "ja, really awesome
weather today." Somehow we started chatting, and turns out that he must
have been some
"having - worked - in - the - IT - department - of - the - same - university - for - 20 - years -- but - very - interested - in - philosophical - and - life - questions" kind of
guy.
The conversation was great... I can't really pinpoint what exactly
it was, but it was one of the conversations only me and a maybe 50 year
old guy who has always lived in the same city could have had - whatever
that means. I've come to realize that I tend to have kind of an "story
opening" effect on people. This guy was surely very shy, but after a
while I found out that he had 4 children, that he is very proud of the
way his family deals with each other on a daily basis, and that once a
week he takes a few hours to visit one of his many favorite coffee
shops to drink one coffee and have a cake with it. So it happened
today. He said he enjoyed his bicycle rides along the river Lech, and
the birds that pop up there on occasion. Small things... just like the
chapter in the book I had read when he showed up "What is a happy
life?":
Well, according to The New Economics Foundation, the
inhabitants of Vanuatu are the happiest people in the world. Vanuatu is
an island in the South Pacific, and people are neither particularly
rich, nor do they have a very long life expectancy. Yet, they are
happy. Why? "Happiness-scientists" say that the things that make us the
happiest are friends, family, and human relationships in general. Yet,
what industrial countries strive for are material wealth and a long
life expectancy. Something is wrong there, isn't it? Btw, the list of
happiest countries has Germany on #81, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and
Finland on places 112-123, and the US on #150!! Even more interesting:
countries that are so rich that their people don't have to work (Kuwait
and Qatar) are on places 159 and 166.
Long story short - I had a great day made out of a simple thing: human connection.
And one more thing I had to think of: I really only had this experience
because of a certain person. A person who taught me how it can be one
of the nicest things to just go and hang out somewhere by yourself, get
involved in random things, and live for the moment. Navin was the
person who taught me how beautiful it could be to be alone. I had never
really been alone my whole life before we met - and alone time was sad
time for me then. When we parted, dealing with being by myself was also
helping me deal with the new situation. Now it's something I treasure
and do on purpose -- and usually I get into very interesting situations
because of it. Anyways, I just felt like telling this little, mundane,
yet very energizing tale that made me appreciate my day.
Btw, who is still reading this? Drop me an email or comment whether you'd want me to continue this blog in English or German. Merci :)
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