“Esteban” (A portrait from the past)

“Esteban” oil -WM

Esteban is a Spaniard of Catalan mother and Andalusian father. He grew up in a small Catalan city. He came from Barcelona to Paris with dreams of journalistic glory as an envoy of a literary magazine. He had the great sensitivity of a writer but for success he lacked two basic qualities: education and money. In Barcelona, the magazine published his rubric a la Dear Abby which he surely handled well because he knew how to dig into life situations and his religious morality concorded with that … Read More

“Janek” (A portrait from the past)

ink drawing of Janek
“Janek” – ink – WM

Unfortunately I can’t give his family name even if, as readers will find out, it has an important place in history. Janek was born either in Westphalia like his parents or in France. He had some German blood, I am not sure from which side. In Polish he spoke correctly; in French, like a Frenchman. During the war, when he was 8 or 9 years old, his father sent him to the Hitlerjugend. Janek told me how the whippersnappers of his age sliced each other … Read More

Ergo Sum

A 19th Century French poet advised: “Let yourself be sustained by your principles — until they start to wobble.” Just for the fun of it, I’d like to shake them right off the bat.

“I think, therefore I am” is accepted as a universal truth but I disagree and propose instead: “I feel, therefore I am.” Perhaps I am not the first to claim it, as it seems pretty obvious. So, sorry for “rediscovering America.”

I know, thanks to the mind, that 2 + 2 = 4, and everybody else … Read More