FACEBOOK MEMORIES

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Facebook memories has been nudging me these days, sending photos from a 2014 trip to Paris, where Oswaldo and I spent 3 delightful weeks housed in the Maison Suger, a research institution located  in the heart of the Latin quarter.Oswaldo would lecture during the day, while I was free to walk around and drink in the city. Each day new FB generated photos bring up memories from those weeks, here walking in le Jardim de Luxembourg 



when my wonderful niece Christine flew in from Copenhagen to join me for a long weekend, and we walked and walked until we couldn’t take another step – and then walked some more. At the time she had undergone fighter pilot training and was in top physical condition, entertaining me with stories about being air-dropped alone into a Canadian forest for survival training and other jaw-dropping experiences, as we strode along. We discovered that we both enjoyed watching art as much as staring at pastries or shopping for shoes together.


 

A photo of the art-deco interior of the Vagenende restaurant 



jogged my memory of another day spent with Oswaldo, although I no longer remember what we ate. But it made me search through all the photos, reliving the whole trip. Amongst them I found this lovely wire-haired fox terrier



that I met in the Marais. And then I remembered how I used to talk to the dogs I met in the street, because my halting French just wasn’t very functional in spite of years spent at the Alliance Francaise. I wrote about this here: Talking to Dogs in Paris

 

The images remind me of the freedom I have lost – the experiences I have missed - the prize for staying healthy and safe at home with my family, now for more than 7 months. Back in March, this long seclusion was unthinkable, and yet we have managed rather well and are grateful to go through it together. In many ways, our self-imposed quarantene has been like a long unusual trip about which I have wanted to write in this blog, just like I did in my 14 travel blogs. Before the online blogs I used to make hand-written travel diaries. I would write at the end of every day in locally bought notebooks, interspersing text with cuttings, maps and ticket-stubs - never photos  – and used locally bought colored pens and glue to pursue whatever theme was in my head for that particular trip.



Around 2006, when I acquired my first white Mac-book, I discovered MobileMe, the user-friendly Apple app and wrote several blogs, now using text mixed with photos. It was a real blow when Apple decided to discontinue the app and I lost all my composition work, able only to transfer awkward screenshots of text into the Google BlogSpot app, which I currently use. 



Inspiration and initiative come from many subtle sources. I took a great online writing class at the end of April, where we were given prompts to write 500 words a day. At the same time, I began to follow Suleika Jaouad’s Isolation Journals The Isolation Journals, which for a period of 100 days offered creative and thoughtful prompts . After the class ended, a small group of us writers decided to form an online writing group, sharing more 500-word pieces, and suddenly I realized I could make my own isolation blog. Writing about my own experiences during this long hiatus from outside life has turned out to be healing and soothing, and I am so grateful for anyone who reads and comments on these pieces. 

 

 

 

 





 

Comments

  1. julinhazonhaOctober 20, 2020 at 5:34 PM

    Wonderful as always, Siri, thanks. Will our experience last as part of human history? Amazing how little (nothing) I heard on the 1918 pandemic from grandparents who lived through it as teens. My mother did tell me she took me as a baby to Maine to get away from polio in Massachusetts. But it was a short stay, I think.

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  2. SiriOctober 20, 2020 at 9:10 PM

    Thanks, Julia 🤗 It's an interesting question. I suspect that our efforts will be submerged in the larger, more ominous scenarios that surround us. My Norwegian maternal grandparents, both born in the late 1890s, never mentioned the 1918 pandemic, whereas both WWI and WWII featured in their stories. Nonetheless, I believe it's still valid and worthwhile to share one's thoughts and experiences to even a modest audience.

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  3. AnonymousOctober 20, 2020 at 11:22 PM

    Siri, how we all wish for those carefree days of your trip to Paris. Such a beautiful memory that makes me wish for those carefree days as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SiriOctober 21, 2020 at 10:21 AM

      Great word, David: 'carefree'. No worries about firebombs, knife attacks, or a deadly virus. We were so lucky.

      Delete
  4. aniOctober 21, 2020 at 3:05 PM

    Siri, your life reads like a novel, with the niece who jumps out of airplanes in Canada, juxtaposed with dining in elegant restaurants in Paris. Your nieces story offers a different perspective on war, politics and history. Then there are the animals. Where would we be without them? Of course you talk with dogs in your imperfect French, and they communicate worlds to you with their eyes.

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    Replies
    1. SiriOctober 21, 2020 at 7:51 PM

      Thanks, Ani. Dogs are always a great source of comfort. Did you read the embedded story? There's a bit about a cat on a leash, which is a personal favorite. I think you'd enjoy.

      Delete

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