You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for them as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt (Lv 19:33-34).
I’ve been back in Exarchia a couple weeks now, an alien amidst aliens — a statement I don’t make lightly. It’s just that, even after all these years, I’ve never actually considered who and how I am here. Two of my children have lived for some time in foreign parts (and I don’t see that changing for them very soon, possibly ever?). Anyhow, from them I’m beginning to learn how vital it is to absorb what is around me. Possibly because I flit in and out, I’ve been an Outside Observer in Athens. Unlike my two children, I never even learned the language.
But still I persist
The women at Melissa, quite as familiar with me as I am with them, are from Congo, Gabon, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. So we’re all from all over. Except there is this: I’m here by choice.
This element, this luck, I mean, allows me to continue to come and go, and this means being an American tourist when it’s convenient. At this morning’s Saturday Market, four fuzzy peaches found a place in my shopping bag next to Nespresso capsules I’d just picked up at abMarket, a habit (Nespresso) I’m not proud of, as I’ve yet to follow the capsule- recycling instructions.
(And, yes, this book is another luxury…)
One more (“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking” — John Dickerson quoting Joan Didion, and speaking to my condition this morning, as this blogpost testifies to!). It’s that luxury of being able to photograph what a recent tagger did to the best piece of graffiti on my street. I’ve nodded at that rif on Magritte’s iconic painting for years — as I’m sure Elizabeth and Teresa have as well, when they’ve been here. Probably photographed it, as I have, too, back in the day.
It’s tempting to speculate about what Rene Magritte himself, so caught up in the visible and invisible, might have to say about this morning’s defacement:
For me, the tagger just yielded up a new reflection on an increasingly familiar reality– impermanence!
mebtravelling 