Writer Between Worlds

Soulful writing about humans and places

Category: ENGLISH

  • Life is a cucumber salad

    I’m into natural beauty. I hear people are giving their daughters nose jobs for their 18th birthday. I love my daughter’s nose, and I’d much rather cut up anybody who comes near it. It is perfect just the way it is. Who would want a mass-produced Barbie for a daughter?!.. But that’s another story. This…

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  • Small town blues

    I used to be a big city girl, dynamic and fulfilled. But then I emigrated and became a shadow. First, I couldn’t speak a word of German. Yes, to the extent that I would bring home a jar of red cabbage thinking it was red beet. By the time I was einigermaßen able to communicate,…

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  • Sons of a gun

    At this point I just want to say something about the recent shooting sprees in America. It seems all sorts of maniacs are on the loose again. And their guns, too. Now, I am not trying to pick a fight with anyone, but I cannot stand the blatant hypocrisy and shortsightedness of the gun-loving party.…

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  • Paradox of our existence

    That you cannot keep any of it. That is the most sadistic part of life, its sardonic grin. That you cannot keep that which you hang on to the most, that which you love the most, that which is most said to be yours. You cannot keep that which you are held most responsible for,…

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  • Latest ownership craze

    I remember my mother raising me with that Central European sense of politeness, where she would constantly nag: “What does it cost you to say hello? What does it cost you to say thank you?” It used to cost nothing, and so we grew up always politely saying hello and thank you. But what do…

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  • A touch of German humor

    Well, since I did such serious German-bashing in my last post (and my conscience has been shaken by vigorous spasms of guilt ever since…), let me make it up to them by saying that they do have occasional bouts of excellent humor. Take this guy that was on Deutschland Funk this morning, a stand-up comedian,…

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  • Prozedur über alles

    Would it be possible to write a piece about the periodic absurdity of German life? The eye-popping, mind-boggling, neuron-grilling absurdity of the bureaucratic mindset? I don’t think so. See, I can’t even come up with the right adjectives… Remember those Tom-and-Jerry cartoons where a desperate Tom pulls his own tongue, hits himself over the head…

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  • Hasta la vista!

    Actually, it’s therapy. It’s therapy the three protagonists in Geoffrey Enthoven’s film are looking for. And it is actually baffling that no one else around them happens to see that. Not the parents, overprotective and naturally obsessed with maintaining the physical body, the tortured, handicapped body, present and “alive”. But the body isn’t really alive.…

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  • Europe – Endrope?

    I opened the ‘Shares & Stocks’ section of the paper today and an ocean of red met my eye. All the indices were down, except maybe two or three (surprisingly enough, Nokia shares were up. Well, not a lot of place to fall once you’ve hit rock bottom, I guess :-)). So what is the…

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  • It’s time

    There comes a time when you look at the person next to you – your spouse – and you don’t know them anymore. And the really sad thing is you look at them and you don’t know yourself anymore. You look at him and you ask yourself: “Who is this person?” But you look at…

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  • Joy-less

    His face is gaunt and he stares blankly ahead. Dragging his feet up the hill to his house, he is either frowning in discontent, looking bored, or being downright spiteful and aggressive. His bubbly anger boils just under the surface. He is 5. At home he has a room full of toys waiting for him.…

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  • Kayak and jazz weekend

    The summers in Germany are damn short and rather on the cool side, at least compared to our south-east European ones. So quite often you will spend the whole month of June with your eyes glued to the weather channel desperately hoping for the good news. If summer happens to fall on a weekend, then…

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