Margie on the life force

Margie’s son Andy came to visit, and he and Lucy took her to one of her favorite public gardens. “You could feel the life force coming through,” she said, showing me with her hands. “All the buds are coming out of the ground, the bushes, the tree limbs. Everything’s just about to burst into life again, and it’s a privilege to see it one more time.”

I told her about a wonderful new book of poems by Irina Klepfisz, poems about justice, about socialist values, about Palestine/Israel problems.

“Wait a minute. I know that Palestine/Israel thing is very important but I can’t remember how it goes. I’m so sorry, would you tell me the basic outlines of it again?” I said after WWII the victors decided there should be a Jewish homeland, and they decreed it would be the most desirable part of what was then called Palestine, but there were no provisions made for the Arabs already living on that land. That led to the whole, horrible situation that is still a big problem, which is why many Jews living in the USA, including Klepfisz, are fighting for Palestinian rights. 

“Yes,” she said, nodding, “and the Palestinians are Arabs, and it’s their olive trees. It’s like the Europeans when they came to this country and took the land belonging to the Indians. I remember now. I’m sorry I had to ask. It seems to me that memory is like a bridge to the life I’m leaving. The bridge is sort of melting at one end, and I’m in the water swimming already, but fortunately I’m a good swimmer.” 

That led to memories of Camp Mikan, and then somehow we were revisiting the largest turning point in her life: when her husband left her for another woman and she was able, for the first time, to create the life she wanted for herself and her children. “It was my turn,” she said, and that reminded me of Aretha Franklin’s interpretation of the song by that title. I played it for her on my phone, repeating each line to be sure she could understand the words, and she took great delight in it, rocked back in her chair, and and said, “That really is my song. Saw my life through someone else’s eyes. And then it was my turn.” 

In worrying family news, the children’s grandfather in Arizona suffered a heart attack last night. He’s stable so far but we’re all feeling concern for him, hopes for the best possible outcome.