Three tables - one time

Today on "Junge"

I'm sitting on the couch, a storm is brewing outside. Yet there they are: two men in a negotiation, a mother and daughter, smiling and drinking coffee and juice, a couple with a Labrador, arguing. Three tables side by side. And all six people are sitting there at the same time. Each is experiencing a different reality, while I observe them through the glass wall like actors on a stage. It strikes me as odd. And I think, in that moment, that they are all feeling something completely different. One person goes bankrupt or starts a business or cancels a deal or plans something, another envies another or thinks about her lover, her husband, her boyfriend, her girlfriend or simply enjoys the moment, the togetherness, the start of studies, the move to the new apartment, the holiday together and the others think about divorce, dog training, are angry, hope for reconciliation, think the holiday is over and the coffee doesn't taste good and now he's even accusing me of how I should train the dog, just because he's had so many more dogs than me.

And for those who didn't know: Yes, that's what happens when you don't have a strong filter, you absorb everything, interpret it, and also have a lot of imagination and talk to fictional characters every day. I didn't hear a thing about what was being said outside. I only made my own assumptions. I would have loved to type them right into my laptop. By the way, I wasn't sitting at Junge am Markt, but at the one by the entrance to Wismar. It's fantastic there. Just sit on the couch with a view outside sometime! Next time I should bring my laptop.

Incidentally, I'm often quite close to reality—what people call 'reality'. It's quite peculiar. Lately, people have been visiting me, telling me directly or indirectly that my novels are close to 'the'—their—reality. A few days ago, I said: Yes, sometimes imagination is closer to reality than one thinks.

3 tables, close together, 3 situations, 6 worlds – far apart from each other – Here I feel a little challenged as an author to find the connecting element or something that could connect these people sooner or later.

With that in mind, warm greetings to your world! And I'm drinking my coffee somewhere else too. It just worked out that way today.

Best wishes from Bente!

September 2024