This is a pencil sharpener I bought YEARS ago & found in my home desk over the weekend. If you really look, you'll find that objects can have two meanings....As soon as I saw this @ the dollar store - i had to have it, even though I've never sharpened one pencil with it.
Back in 1997/98 - I saw a TV movie called "America's Dream;" a trilogy staring Danny Glover, Wesley Snipes, partly written by Maya Angelou & directed by Bill Duke. The second movie of the three was about a white door-to-door salesman who comes upon Danny Glover's wife while he's gone to town for the day. This takes place 'back in the day', but the white guy thinks the black woman is beautiful in her painful shyness, plain house dress & head-rag. She gives him water, talks to him thru the door & finally he gets her to come out on the porch. He introduces her to a phonograph he has on his truck for sale. She has never seen the likes of anything like it & is entranced w/the music.
It was like watching syrup drip real slow as he takes her through the steps of loosening up;
- coming off the porch
- trying to keep her bare feet covered cause she didn't have shoes
- trying to get used to him looking at her
- him smiling @ her
- him telling her he liked her smile
- touching hands (she jumped like it was fire - LOL!)
- him talking her into taking her head-rag off
- how shy she was taking it off
- him telling her how beautiful she was without it
- him putting a record on the phonograph then reaching out to teach her to dance
- her finally getting close enuff to him to learn to dance; and
- how they laughed & relaxed w/each other
Now.... since it was so long ago & I only remember pieces of the movies, I'm thinking this took one a bad turn. Danny Glover came home, chased the guy off with a shotgun & beat the crap outta the woman. The white guy ran up the road and turned & listened sadly, but he couldn't run back to help her & risk getting buckshots in the ass, cause Danny was. not. playing. And.... after all, Danny WAS her husband that had just gone to town for the day, okay? Kay. I know, I know.... sudden darkness in the middle of all that love.
BUT the whole point to this is.... every time I look @ this phonograph/pencil sharpener, all I ever think of is 'him & her', dripping real slow. Like syrup.
And I'll never get rid of it for that very reason....
Reads like a screenplay...quite visual; I do thank God for giving us the capacity to have memories; regardless of whether they are good or bad. I could never be able to relate to amnesia or dementia(is this correct?)
ReplyDeletehey sister; yes - memories are such a gift, that's why I feel so bad for folks who slowly lose theirs. It's amazing what you can pull up & watch like a movie in your mind after so many years in spite of constantly learning new stuff. Funny how a touch, a smell, a sound - an object - can kick up things you thought were nearly forgotten. :-)
ReplyDelete