Gardens
You find them behind the house—secret, closed off from the outside world and carefully tended. They are places where we like to go, places where the work we do is pleasant. Some people make gardens.
Style
Her clothes were more or less all right. They were clean and they suited her. OK, the pants were a little wide and one shoe had a little hole in it, but the hole was on the instep, where no one looks. No one could tell at first glance that she bought the whole outfit in a thrift shop. And it is hard to wash long hair in a bathroom sink, but she managed that too every morning.
Civilization
"I do not need Europe" she said, shaking her shining black hair. "I've been to Korea, where my parents are from, twice, and I've been to China. What I need in my life, is to eat rice every day. I must have rice. I do not need Europe."
It was the second time I'd heard something like that from an Asian American girl. The first time was at the university when I was studying English history. A girl, walking my desk, said "oh, wow! So many books and all about one little period of time in European history! And I thought Europe didn't have any history at all!"
We Don't Know
We live in a time of unknown signs, of signs that have lost their meaning, that have become confused or were created on purpose in order not to have a clear meaning. That is true for the people of the third world just as much as for the people of the developed world. Because the poor countries of the southern and eastern areas of the earth find themselves in the embrace of the rich countries of the northern and western areas. Commerce unites them. Products go everywhere, and so do people.
Eagle and Bad
It startled me—a phrase I happened to overhear in the schoolyard one time, while the children were playing. "I'm an eagle and bad." It was part of their game. Oh well, you tell yourself, kids play a lot of games and say a lot of things. But I remembered this one. I couldn't get it out of my head. It was a phrase that showed an ideal—an ideal version of what the child wanted to become.
Grandmothers
At first glance they don't look like anything an American girl would know--the old women in Greece in their black clothes. Bent, walking with difficulty, without teeth but smiling, they greet me warmly and continue on their way. In the beginning, when I came here, I could not understand what they were saying because I did not speak Greek. But I always wondered what they were thinking, what experiences and what stories they carried hidden under the black dresses, even what they would say about me. There was a distance between us, which I filled with my imagination.
