Ode to…
Ode to grandma. Ode to you, I say, you with the 12 pack of Budlight that I have to buy for you every time you come over (and drink them you do, all with a straw). Ode to your high-heel wearing, flamboyant make-up ways. You are la reina sitting on your plastic covered couch in your flowing flowery moo-moo, rocking back and forth to old salsa serenades, remembering in tears old lovers, the husband and not-exactly-husbands, the one daughter that didn’t make it out of the projects, whose picture is nestled between the candles and saints atop your dresser–the glow from the candlelight radiates her youthful Boriqua beauty, now forever preserved by death. A true Amazon, you birth only daughters, you help raise grandchildren, you were, are, and always will be a grand salsera who burned the floor of the Palladium back-in-the-day, you hauntingly flaunt your title, Sinvergüenza, whispering it to anyone sitting next to you with a wink. Ode to you for letting us watch McGuiver every time you babysat us, and teaching us to say back to the TV “Holy Shit” and “Mother F*cker!” (Sorry also that that was the last time you babysat us).
You celebrate and embrace the diversity of your descendants, smiling, smiling because somehow you planted a seed of yourself in all of us who originate from you, so that we continuously celebrate your spirit.
Budweiser beer would approve this message, as you are their unofficial sponsor: Grandma, this Mother’s Day’s for you!
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WOW!
What a vivid image! This is so touching. There is no love or relationship quite like the one many of us have with a grandmother. My grandmother who is a classy, innocent, petite, hilarious without effort woman also drinks TALL glasses of beer and helps herself to approximately 6 oz. of BOXED red wine each night… she fills up the glass all the way and explains that her doctor said it was ok to have this every night. What she fails to realize is that the glass she uses holds 12 oz. or perhaps this is deliberate but her innocence allows for this “error.”
There is something mesmerizing about watching Charlie Chaplin. What is it?
He could convey so many different emotions and states of mind in the same scene with a single sound. I think most of us keep deep down inside (some deeper than others)the sentiments that make up his character’s complex personality. And he was able to capture all of that complexity in a simple shot of him walking away. Now that I think of it, he is not unlike the Man of La Mancha meandering through life stumbling into weird situations in a journey that will never reach any destination. Both funny and tragic characters still make us laugh at them, with them and I suspect at ourselves.
Indeed!