Reading and healing

One of my bedside table books: To be healed by the earth by Warren Grossman. It is not only about healing, but could be understood universally. The book which you may open on any page and start reading comforting text or watching relaxing pictures. It makes me so calm and serene :)

The chapter read yesterday – “Generosity”. About importance - and even necessity - of giving. Both giver and receiver get benefits from that, because giving allows the nature`s energy to flow.

The proof experienced yesterday – washing the windows at home. As perhaps someone knows, "my home" is a tiny little room in the rented three-bedroom apartment shared with two landladies of respected age (62 and 82), which may sound a bit pathetic but no condolences – that is my choice and financial decision. Anyway...

Washing the windows is quite a commitment, especially when you are not the biggest fan of household chores, so I felt pretty antagonistic when they suggested me to help them with all (all!) apartment windows, which makes four rather huge ones. Not that I wanted to quarrel about that, but I didn`t want to do it. At all. But being sort of a nice person... And once the decision was made, I experienced sort of a calm fatal feeling. And the windows were washed. I mean - by me :) Feeling myself almost the hero of the neighborhood, which - perhaps - proves that giving is good :)

Read right books :) Peace to everybody :)

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, almost in Moscow

Meaning – his plays in Moscow...
Somehow unexpectedly I became interested in the work of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. And what I`ve discovered: almost everything is already translated into Russian, published in several (!) editions, his plays are in the repertoire of many (!) theaters all over the country already... Well, okay, now I also now :)

His “philosophical” plays are interesting – in the sense that otherwise, without that “easy” manner, I perhaps wouldn`t read anything about French philosophers of the past. We all are too busy for that... (*bad joke).

I liked his stories more. Or are they novels? Three of them are written as by a child or a teenager, so we see the story as the young main character saw it. “Oscar and Lady in Pink” , “Monsieur Ibrahim and the flowers of the Koran” , “L`Enfant de Noe” . Briefly, these are the stories of young people in complicated or just terrible circumstances, and how they search for truth, how they learn about life, about people and about themselves. They are not sentimental but they are true. They are worth reading.

Several Moscow theaters have his plays adapted to Russian. “Oscar and Lady in Pink” (14 letters to God) was interpreted by a very reputable Russian actress Alice Friendlich (from St-Petersburg). My web search investigation showed that those plays were played in many towns, in professional and amateur theaters, and always got approving feedbacks and enthusiastic reviews.

As for me I saw “Libertin” last Friday in Moscow and it was good :) Interpreted by the troupe of the Satire theatre . I definitely liked the scene décor – an imitation of the French park, and the dialogues were also distinct and meaningful, not lost anything from the original Schmitt`s idea, so the final applause were merited.

Funny thing – once you are interested in something – you start to see it all around you. Now there are many Schmitt`s books in the shops I see, the French center has his books in Russian and French, they even have a DVD with one of his plays and the film based on his story... He is quite a productive author and well-known in the theater world. The point is - am a bit surprised anyway :)

By the way, Mr.Schmitt was in Moscow, in 2005, for his one more new book.