2008/07/24 Amsterdam
Escape
Too old
On Tuesday night I did my duty. I had dinner at my mother’s, in the presence of my sister, her husband and six of her seven children.
My sister and her family are visiting my mother for the summer.
My mother complained that her daughter, her son-in-law and her grandchildren were getting on her nerves. “I’m too old for this,” she said in the kitchen. “These people don’t know what civilization is.”
The second oldest daughter talked to her boyfriend on the phone for more than an hour.
My mother said: “This young man is uncivilized as well. He doesn’t even say hello to me when I pick up the phone.”
The oldest daughter of my sister is in love with God. She is praying all day long.
At 10:40 PM I left. It was more an escape than anything else.
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9 comments 
When you escaped did your mother came along with you?Or does she still have to put up with te uncivillzed?
The feeling of escape, all too familiar.
10.40 PM? I think, for leaving a family dinner, that is a very acceptable time. More even, it's an achievement.
Sara
My mother is too old to escape. At least that's what she told me.Komaf
KomafVertoeven in familie voor een keer.
Wij zitten om de tafel bij elkaar.
Hetzelfde woordgebruik en handgebaar
komen nog altijd op hetzelfde neer.
Ik mag wel oppassen of ben alweer
geworteld en voortdurend in gevaar
dupe te worden van de evenaar
die alles afweegt op een vast weleer.
Ik wil niet meer. Het is te veel verzuurd.
De wereld schoof zich tussen toen en nu.
Zo luchtig mogelijk ga ik vertrekken.
Om niet voortijdig argwaan te wekken
zeg ik in 't dode idioom aju
en fiets hermetisch door de strenge buurt.
Gerrit Achterberg ( 1905-1962)
Arnon, do you blame your sister and her family for distressing you rmother?
I try to avoid visting my parents when my eldest sister and her family are there: they are all very much in love with Jesus and my mother is all the time trying to bridge the gap between them and me and my boyfriend. My sister irritates me but my mother trying to brigde unbridgeable gaps sometimes irritates me even more.
But somehow I blame my sister for the irritation that my mother causes.
I try to avoid visting my parents when my eldest sister and her family are there: they are all very much in love with Jesus and my mother is all the time trying to bridge the gap between them and me and my boyfriend. My sister irritates me but my mother trying to brigde unbridgeable gaps sometimes irritates me even more.
But somehow I blame my sister for the irritation that my mother causes.
Maybe an escape of reallity will help. Probable she is to well-mannerd to really escape if your mother could.
Family
I am quite honored you have in the past considered me as part of your family. It warms my heart again just thinking about it.Under the circumstances then, there was no escape for you, neither at dinner nor any other time of day. Amazing you got out of it unscarred.
It is not possble to escape.
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