My dear parents stopped by my place yesterday – on their way to a wedding out in Jersey. They arrived, in the middle of the snow, bearing very cool kitchen chairs for me, kitchen chairs which look like they came out of a 1950s kitchen. Red leather and chrome. So comfortable, you just sink down into them. But there were my parents, beaming at me in the foyer, covered in snow, holding the two chairs. My heart just cracks!<\/p>\n
They hung out with me for a while, we had coffee, we sat in my kitchen, talking, and laughing. My mom had brought turkey, cheese, and a huge dill pickle, which we all shared. A picnic.<\/p>\n
It was so nice to see them, and so nice to have them over in my place. There have been times in my life when I have lived in apartments where it was impossible to have anyone over. Either they were too small, or, like the apartment I lived in briefly on 63rd Street, I had two roommates who were completely insane, who both had cats and the entire space was like a lunatic asylum.<\/p>\n
Now it’s my palace – and I can welcome them into it.<\/p>\n
It was a joy. My parents. It’s always an interesting conversation with them.<\/p>\n
At one point – we started talking about Prague, and Czechoslovakia in general. Kafka, Kundera … My dad said something about Kepler and Tycho Brahe being brought to Prague – and he asked me, (which I love) “Did you ‘do’ Czechoslovakia?” Meaning … in my whole Country series.<\/p>\n
I did – but on my old blog.<\/p>\n
So since my dad requests it, I’ll bring those posts over. Most of my initial knowledge about Czechoslovakia came from reading writers I love.<\/p>\n
Kundera. Kafka’s journals (which are absolutely phenomenal). Ivan Klima is a great favorite of mine. Vaclav Havel. It seems extraordinary that one country would produce so many great writers. (But then again, I’m Irish. What country on the planet has given us more great writers than that one small island?) Maybe it’s something in the air. Or the water.<\/p>\n
I knew about “Prague Spring” from reading Unbearable Lightness of Being<\/i> and then seeing the film.<\/p>\n
Etc.<\/p>\n
It was only much later in my life that I decided to investigate the roots of this fascinating country, to see how it fit into the rest of Europe, and to learn about what Klima calls “the spirit of Prague” – the very spirit which made such things as “the Prague Spring” possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My dear parents stopped by my place yesterday – on their way to a wedding out in Jersey. They arrived, in the middle of the snow, bearing very cool kitchen chairs for me, kitchen chairs which look like they came … Continue reading