I found a book by a Polish author between the seats of a great coach which was transporting me from my rural home to my place of work<\/p>\n
As always I sat in the front seat of the coach as I enjoyed the panorama of strange travel<\/p>\n
I even enjoyed the monotony of the grey cities<\/p>\n
As the coach moved from lane to lane I suddenly realised that the satellite navigation system that was being used by the driver was giving directions in Polish<\/p>\n
This disturbed me slightly as I thought all satellite navigation systems spoke English<\/p>\n
We stopped in traffic the driver turned to me<\/p>\n
I tell you he is so homesick<\/em><\/p>\n Why<\/em><\/p>\n It wants to return to Southern Poland where the summers are so hot and the winds magical<\/em><\/p>\n I have found a book between the seats perhaps I should read a few of the stories to your tiny machine<\/em><\/p>\n Is it about Poland<\/em><\/p>\n Yes\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n If it pleases you do so then please do<\/em><\/p>\n I placed the satellite navigation system on my lap with its screen facing me and with a little difficulty began reading from The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz<\/p>\n The machine seemed to relax but soon was questioning the stories<\/p>\n I read from the Book of Holidays<\/p>\n Many of the stories deal with childhood and borrow liberally from the works of the great philosopher Witkeiwicz<\/em><\/p>\n When oil was struck the once quiet town was changed into a brawling and boozing place where good people closed their curtains at dusk and did not open them until the sun rose again<\/em><\/p>\n The shops of my childhood became neglected and soon were bars and other places of decadence<\/em><\/p>\n I longed for my childhood<\/em><\/p>\n But it was another country as people say<\/em><\/p>\n The great philosopher tells us that childhood is full of images and some of these images are of great significance to us<\/em><\/p>\n We carry them with us for the rest of our lives<\/em><\/p>\n Sometimes we cannot see them but they are always there in our consciousness<\/em><\/p>\n I was looking through a train window a few years ago and saw a fire escape on the side of a hospital<\/em><\/p>\n It was a very ordinary fire escape but I was immediately transported back to my childhood<\/em><\/p>\n I had climbed a fire escape at a hospital during my father\u2019s final illness<\/em><\/p>\n I did not want others to see me cry<\/em><\/p>\n And then until that day I had forgotten that fire escape where for a while I had hidden myself away from the world<\/em><\/p>\n There was never a guarantee of secure borders and even at that young age I knew that<\/em><\/p>\n We were in heavy traffic and the rain had begun to fall<\/p>\n I watched the wipers as they cleared the screen without effort<\/p>\n The red taillights of cars and buses glistened in the dullness of the day<\/p>\n I thought of the Devil and then of God<\/p>\n These images are retained by the soul and are believed to travel with oneself after death<\/em><\/p>\n They are the original ingredients<\/em><\/p>\n Through our childhood experiences we understand the world<\/em><\/p>\n There is nothing new<\/em><\/p>\n We like to think that everything we see is through new eyes but we have experienced it before<\/em><\/p>\n Even in the cradle we acquire wisdom<\/em><\/p>\n As we grow older we try to find answers to everything<\/em><\/p>\n That is a folly<\/em><\/p>\n The answers are to be found in our consciousness and sub consciousness\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n As I read from the book I noticed that the small screen of the satellite navigation system was beginning to fade<\/p>\n I tapped it lightly<\/p>\n I would like to think that the battery is responsible or there is a problem with the power source<\/em><\/p>\n But its behaviour is too erratic<\/em><\/p>\n I think that this small machine is pining for its homeland<\/em><\/p>\n The driver gently picked up the ailing machine and placed it on the screen not far from the steering wheel<\/p>\n Quite often good people such as yourself board my coach and find the book secreted between the seats<\/em><\/p>\n I encourage them to read to my satellite navigation system<\/em><\/p>\n It understands English as I do<\/em><\/p>\n But it is only a matter of time until I enter the coach and find it lifeless\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Can you not return it to Southern Poland<\/em><\/p>\n It is too late as things have changed so much<\/em><\/p>\n You yourself mentioned the discovery of oil<\/em><\/p>\n They no longer sell pomegranates in the dusty streets of his town<\/em><\/p>\n Like mine it is wilderness of greed<\/em><\/p>\n That is why I drive this lovely coach <\/em><\/p>\n And think of our hot summers and of the magical winds\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I found a book by a Polish author between the seats of a great coach which was transporting me from my rural home to my place of work As always I sat in the front seat of the coach as I enjoyed the panorama of strange travel I even enjoyed the monotony of the grey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10735,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734\/revisions\/10735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}