Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Love and hate in Holland.

Life is a funny thing once in a while. But it seems in case of Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski his life understands he needs fuel for his blog and offers its funny things daily.
Today it was hate and love.
Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski had a wonderful lunch with his friend Wendy Danser, a talented poet, in a popular restaurant in Amsterdam called Wildschut. He returned later that afternoon to a small town near Amsterdam where he is staying. From the railway station it is a half an hour to walk to the home of his friends. The first part is over a wide road exclusively reserved for cyclists and pedestrians. Peacefully he was walking on this road when suddenly, halfway, he was pushed by a man coming from behind to the centre of the road. Seeing the man next to him, Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski impulsively responded by pushing the man into the side of the road. Using the motto: "You push me, I push you". Or, like Mr. Bush: "If you are not against me, you are for me" (if we remember Mr. Bush correctly which is no easy task). Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski was in fact surprised about his impulsive reaction. Maybe it came more from the surprise that someone for no good reason was doing this physical and semi-violent thing to him. The man, about 50 years old, looking well dressed and an intellectual, wanted as a follow up to his attack and Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski's adequate response, beat him with his umbrella. Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski has seen many of Mohammed Ali's fights and immediately took a position like it was a Rumble in the Jungle. That scared off the man so much that he refrained using his umbrella and he exclaimed instead: "You were walking in front of my feet". That was a rather puzzling statement. If you walk faster as another person and the road is wide enough, how about passing politely on one of the sides. Why having to push a person out of the way ? Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski, realizing that a fight might land him either in a hospital or in jail while his plane would leave to Mexico the next morning, asked the man: "Is the road not wide enough for you, you idiot ?" Maybe because of this remark or the Ali shuffle he looked like he could perform, the man decided to retreat in an ignoring mode and the hilarious situation arose that both were walking side by side for some distance. Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski still feels embarassed and some shame that he felt an energy arise in him to suddenly plant his fist in the face of the man and then violently another one until pulp would cover his glasses . Hate heating up while he thought for some years he was a man full of love.
He comes home to his long time and great Russian friend Mandira who tells him: "Don't you realize the man pushing you had reasons to do so without it had anything to do with you ? He might have had a conflict with his boss that afternoon. He might suffer of erection failure. He might have had an argument with his wife the night before. You just took it personal while you could have had it pass like a whiffle of the wind".
What a wise woman Mandira is.

Next, Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski climbed behind his MacBook Pro to check if there were any screams coming out of scyberspace. His secret e-mail adress, where he had been expecting a message from the Princess of India for weeks, was flashing: a message had arrived. Would she finally had found time to write him or was it a sneaky stock-alert he is plagued by ?
His finger zigzagged out of control on the control pad, being emotional, and the arrow went everywhere except on the icon to open the message. But eventually, remembering how he had recently been so bravely dealing with a thief of his taxi in Paris and his superb personification of Mohammed Ali that very afternoon, he managed eventually to wipe clean the touch pad of the accumulated sweat and open the message.
And yes, and yes, no irony is here to be applied, it was a long and beautiful and warm message from her.
Hate and love, yin and yang, all in one day.

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