After sitting for a short time in the square in Old Town yesterday, I was feeling restless. I know there is more to see here than I can appreciate. I have to remind myself constantly that God’s purposes are often hidden to us for many years before we come to understand the meaning behind this moment or that moment. I exited the square and took a staircase heading down. After reaching the street below, I was among a tour group of highschool-aged kids, so down another staircase I went. At the bottom were some old apartments and a field of grass. I can remember saying “Alright God, what am I doing here? I don’t want to be here, not at all.”
Bits of hand-carved marble like the markers of an unkempt cemetery lie scattered about a path near-by. And I soon could see and old, white-bearded man breaking bread apart for birds on a one meter tall marble block. The gate to a house, his house I presumed, was open a few feet away and there were signs about museum and heritage up on one of the columns outside. I stood at the entrance, looking back with camera in hand to see if he would stop me, and then I found myself in a bit of a craftsman’s paradise.
By now the man had taken notice of me and seemed happy for some company. He squinted and creased his face at my explanation of where I was from until, finaly he said “Amerika.” “America,” I repeated. We were inside the house now, I had been drawn in by a collection of axes over the doorway. He handed me a black-and-white booklet from an art show with the name Zbigniew Maleszewski on it. “Me,” he said pointing to himself. “Take it,” he handed me the booklet. “Thank you,” I said, “Merci,” I knew he spoke French, “Dziękuję,” and of course Polish.
We spoke a bit more and I gestured, indicating that I might explore more of his domicile. He gestured in kind and I found myself where John Alan Ross and Norman Wayne Elder meet; the quarters of an artistic anthropologist who collects interesting things and is, himself, quite interesting. I loved it, and instantly I loved the man.
albaniacalling 