The beginning was sheer happiness, not that it exists, but sheer happiness in comparison with the before and the after. Anyway, very good days, very good indeed. We both worked, but we had lunch at home. In fact, we didn’t work all that much. We had many hours of idleness, love, irresponsibility and contemplation. At times, we even slept after lunch. We had little past and the place was well lit, airy and with a beautiful view. We were new to each other and both to life. Everything was ahead of us and we went about it slowly, enjoying every minute. We loved as if there was no tomorrow.
But there was.
Paper, cotton, leather, flowers, wood, iron and copper...
After – the after, the after... – came the responsibilities, who washes, who dries, who makes the bed, who contributes with how much to the expenses. But even these were new and we had a plan. We would be the first, one of the first couples to share everything. It was at the same time an illusion, like so many things are illusions, but it had its effect: it generated freedom, and with it, solitude; it generated respect, and with it, silence, engendering persons.
Bronze, ceramic, tin, steel, silk, lace and marble...
The days in the middle, neither beginning nor end. Differences and agreements were built, adaptations, mutual concessions. Renunciation, commitments, the insidious delimitation of spaces.
A river begins small, increases, struggles with its banks so that after – the after, the after… – it can spread out, run more smoothly, more comfortable within its margins: thus time passes. There was calm and there was confusion, convergences and divergences, surrenders and silences. Sincerity as virtue, the truth as distress. And the river runs, without questions or answers, it just runs.
Crystal, porcelain and silver...
The end is just a moment, the instant when the water boils. But it had been there already, in the roots, in the genes, in the genesis. Like a presence disguised of daily life, a shadow accepted as an inevitable consequence of light. Unfathomable, final and unarguable. Something that comes apart, crumbles, tears and wears out.
And back to the before, to the beginning, in the form of after the after.
The same matter, dust and stars.
