photo by Jace Grandinetti via Unsplash
He lays the dinner table – one plate, one knife, one fork, a neatly pressed napkin – the pattern of his life.
There were other choices along the way: a woman with hazel eyes and a warm, forgiving smile; a child who could have been plucked from the family photo album, the same unruly hair, the same jutting, stubborn chin.
But he shook them off him like snowflakes from a coat. And now there’s only one way to be.
Alone.
Written for Sonya at Only 100 Words’ Three Line Tales. See the pic and write a story to match it. See here for the other stories.
Well written, but pretty sad 😦
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Thank you. Some people isolate themselves from others until the rest of us barely see them. Keeping people close – that’s what it’s all about. Thanks for reading
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I like this. It matches the grim, boxed in atmosphere of the picture.
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Thank you Jane. I’m glad that came across – he’s led a boxed in life and now he’s living with the consequences. Thanks for reading
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If I could find a nice enough box…
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You’d be tempted? Nice Condo in Palm Beach perhaps? Or a shed-like chalet up a Swiss mountain? 🙂
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Nope. I’m very picky, but when I find it, I’ll jump right in 🙂
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Haha! Enjoy your search 🙂
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I’m not really looking, just hovering on the edges.
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🙂
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That photo is from the holocaust memorial in Berlin. If you’re ever remotely near the area, you have to see that. It’s the most impressive art installation I’ve experienced, requires no words or language to grasp, all visceral.
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I didn’t know that. Even this small shot of it grabs at the tripes in a horribly unsettling way. A fitting memorial then. I’m glad I didn’t write anything jokey to go with it.
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I don’t think there would be any danger of that, Jane – as you said yourself, it’s an unsettling enough image without knowing what it is.
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You’d be surprised what some people find amusing. But you’re right, it would be difficult for most of us to imagine this as a setting for a Teletubbies adventure.
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I looked for other images of it earlier and found a news report DJ who had to apologise on social media because he’d posted a photo of him standing on one of the tallest stones, arms thrown wide, the broadest, cheesy smile on his face. Weird what some people find amusing.
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Some people are just too thick to have souls.
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Sadly, I worry you’re right
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It’s dimensions bespeak the atrocity, the way you approach and enter, like peeling an onion (or going inside one).
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i’ve just read the wikipedia article on it. Sounds as though the construction has been fraught with controversy. It would have been surprising if it hadn’t.
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It’s right within view of the French and American embassies, so its placement feels symbolic too.
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I’m inclined to agree that a monument of these dimensions is needed to represent the immensity of the horror of the Holocaust. The arguments that it is just another form of mea culpa and as such has no meaning is a difficult one for Germans to use and sound convincing.
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Never going to be something that everyone agrees on, though the tone looks and feels ‘right’ to me from the photographs I’ve seen
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That’s how I feel too. When people denounce Holocaust memorials I can’t help feeling there’s an ulterior motive.
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People want to forget – understandable in some ways as the war slips further into history. BUT sadly, genocide is not history and as long as we remind ourselves of how current it is, then memorials like this are important to remember past victims and to educate those of us lucky enough to have been spared. Perhaps one day we’ll learn the lesson
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We forget too much as it is. Forgiving is very laudable and all that, but it isn’t for everybody, and it shouldn’t go hand in hand with forgetting. You can’t undo an action simply by forgetting about it. Yes, I think we do need to have certain unpleasant truths shoved in front of us often. There are already enough kids who believe the Holocaust never happened.
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Very true. Someone had put a comment on the news story I mentioned earlier to that effect – the Holocaust being fabricated. Truly, stupid people in the world
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You have to wonder what they get out of it. Weirdos or manipulators?
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Mix of both? Who knows. I’m not sure I want to
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Waste of space whichever.
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Absolutely
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Yes, looks a remarkable thing, Bill
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Reblogged this on joesephin.
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Thanks for the reblogs – very kind 🙂
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Genocide continues on a daily basis. Not on the scale of the holocaust but still, it happens. We can’t forgot. We can’t isolate ourselves, as did the character in your chilling story did, Lynn, from this fact. And genocide, past and present is a fact. Please god it isn’t a fact in the future.
Your story is fittingly chill and tells of loss just as the memorial does.
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Thank you Lorraine. Yes, sadly, always a possibility in the future, as long a human beings think their beliefs are more important than others, that groups or individuals are below them. Not sure how we change that.
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Me neither — and some days we seem to be moving further away.
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“Like snowflakes from a coat” — what a perfect simile for how some people throw away relationships. It sounds like he prefers to be alone, in which case that woman with the hazel eyes is probably better off with someone who prefers to be together.
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You may be right, Joy – she’s probably better off, but I’m sure she would have done him some good. But you make your bed …
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Alone, should not have been so! But there are memories!
Good take for the prompt.. 🙂
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Thank you Prakash 🙂
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Choices, something to wonder. Thanks for the text Lynn, God bless you. 🙂
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It’s a sad choice to make, to walk through life alone, isn’t it? Thanks so much for reading and for your good wishes 🙂
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