ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A TAVERN

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a tavern, where we used to raise a glass or two. We also used to share a few spare ribs, meat balls, plenty of greek salad, tzatziki and taramosalata, as well as many other dishes of our healthy and tasty national cuisine. I, intentionally, do not mention moussaka, as it is the absolute cliché.

Recently, that tavern closed down. However, there was another tavern in the neighborhood, next to a souvlaki place and not far from the cozy restaurant, where we used to eat with the family and our friends on Sundays. One, by one, all these places closed down. By the end of the summer, there was no tavern or restaurant or fast food place left in our neighborhood. Before last September expired, even the small patisserie shop was an empty place. So was the cute hairdresser’s salon at the corner, next to the remains of the ages ago flourishing video club.

The days when we used to have a parking problem in our neighborhood, are gone by, my friend. Offices, shops and other businesses are closing down, on a weekly basis, leaving us with plenty of available parking space and with this undefined bitter-sweet feeling of nostalgia for the neighbors that we miss. The days when we used to pray, or even fight for a parking space, are gone by, my friend. Now, we pray to see the familiar faces of our neighbors, even the ones we did not use to like, next morning.
 

Our country consists of thousands of neighborhoods, like mine, inhabited by approximately eleven million people, like me. Real people, living in a real country. Yes, my friend. We are not numbers, but complete human beings with feelings. Apart, from being tax payers, that recently cannot afford to pay the medieval tortures that are imposed upon us by the name of taxes, we are normal, everyday people with a multiplicity of qualities. As for our country, apart from being the debtor of a teratogenous dept, accumulated and accumulating via weird and not so clear global decision making, it is also the place which the most human of gods created on Earth.

The easy going, unsuspicious days, are gone by, for the time being, my friend. Nowadays, we are a Nation of very upset, sad and seriously worried people in an extremely unstable national and international environment. Simultaneously, we are a Nation of inventive survivors, knowing though our collective memory, thus our DNA, that there is only one way to win any and all the battles. To fight them. We use to fight heroically. History goes in cycles, repeating itself, my friend.

PCV 10/11/2011

© Peggy Carajopoulou-Vavali_10-11-2011