from Stanislaw Warda: Chronic Infection

My next journey is in progress.

My current illness almost disappeared although my antibiotics do not help me too much; my doctor told me that in this case the antibiotics do not work, only time and lying in bed. Unfortunately, together with progress with recovery from this sickness, the next chronic illness made itself known again. I call it my “Stair’s disease” or “An Ordinary life disease.”  

                                                                                                                                     
I was infected by this disease as a child when my father bought me a globe and woke up my imagination about the world. I was born in a small city where everything and everybody is set up in an order.  As a baker’s child, I was constantly busy helping my parents in our bakery. I argued with my parents that we worked too much, but my parents constantly repeated the slogan “Life is the same everywhere.” I did not believe it and I was jealous of my friends who played football across our street, while I had to be in our store.  When I had   too much work, I would become angry, and I would escape from our home to the main street, where I would sit on the stairs of the general store. These stairs were a place where I could escape from the daily chores and dig into  my child’s imagination. I imagined that somewhere there are places where people do not have to work so hard, live better, and have more free time for themselves. I thought that the grass must be greener somewhere. In my child’s imagination I escaped into the place which I wanted to visit and where in my opinion people live better. It was easy because I had a helpful tool which my parents gave me for my birthday. It was a globe through which I traveled by my finger before my bedtime and imagined those new places.

As an adult I found the remedy for this “disease” and visited many places from my childhood. During those visits, I have understood much more and admitted that my parents had it right when they repeated their slogan “Life is the same everywhere.”

I found a remedy but like with every chronic disease, this remedy does not last forever, and my disease makes itself known. What can I do in this case? The only medicine for it which I know, is to pick a place I have to visit, and just go there. 

This time I do not want to visit special landmarks but places from nowhere, off the beaten path. some small cities in Kansas, Missouri or Oklahoma where life is ordinary. I have not made it yet, but the symptoms of my disease are worsening. So, I still have to find the new confirmation of my parents’ proverb.