Thursday, March 17, 2011

"...the Magic of a Boring Evening at Home" (Gerda Weissmann Klein*)

"Everything looks
so calm out there"




Neil was going out to a play preview with Lisa and Eric was off doing something or other at work so I was looking forward to a quiet night at home.  This includes clawing the cloth chair, which ticks off Eric, and sleeping wherever I feel like it, which concerns Neil.  Anyway, Neil had gone and I watched him go from the window.  It was windy outside and suddenly the back door blew open and this screeching filled the house.  It felt like the house was shaking because it went off for so long.  Then the thing in the hallway rang and someone asked what was going on at the house and I couldn’t tell him.

A man in a uniform showed up and walked all over the house and even opened the dining room door, which was nice because Neil had closed it when he left, so I could just go right on in and sit in any chair I liked or walk all over the table.  Woody (our neighbor friend) came over and talked to the man in uniform, while I sat under the table because I couldn’t really help.  The man left and closed the back door and Woody came in and set off the screeching again.  He wasn’t too happy and there was more ringing and then the screeching stopped.  Woody left and then Neil came home.  He really wasn’t too happy but wanted to make sure that I was OK and not scared.  After Eric came home, Neil told him that he must have left the door unlocked and it wasn't completely closed. I thought that he was trying to blame me because I go in and out so much but he admitted that it was all his fault. Whew! I don't want him to be upset with me.

"Lisa's voice is so soothing on the thing that rings"
Lisa called tonight and told us all about the play that Neil didn’t see called End Days at Ensemble Theatre.  It’s all about a family living in New York sometime after 9/11 (whatever that means) and how they don’t communicate with each other at all.  This boy moves into the neighborhood and he falls in love with the daughter, but she’s Goth (whatever that means) and doesn’t care.  The mom has fantasies about Jesus, who shows up and even talks to her, the dad is very depressed and then the daughter has a vision of Stephen Hawking (not quite sure who he is) in his wheelchair because she likes eating something like catnip grass too.  It sounds like there’s a happy ending and it’s really a sweet show, Lisa thought.  She said Neil and Eric should see it, but Neil isn’t sure about karma (whatever that means) and I found a nice spot and fell asleep.

End Days runs through April 3rd at Ensemble Theatre
http://www.cincyetc.com/home

*Gerda Weissmann Klein won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short One Survivor Remembers.  During her acceptance speech she noted, "I have been in a place for six incredible years, where winning meant a crust of bread and to live another day. Since the blessed day of my liberation I have asked the question, 'Why am I here? I am no better.'  In my mind's eye I see those years and faces of those who never lived to see the magic of a boring evening at home.  On their behalf I wish to thank you for honoring their memory, and you cannot do that in a better way than when you return to your homes tonight to realize that each of you who knows the joy of freedom are winners.  Thank you on their behalf with all my heart."
Listen to her speech here:

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