LE BROOM

Once upon a time I decided to speak French. And then suddenly there was a little boy in a blue shirt and blue overalls with a broom attached to his head. His mother picked him up and held him upside down as if to clean. She said, “Tiens-toi droit!” - imploring him to stand up straight as she swept the floor with his unlikely but appealing appendage. This is the first poster I ever saw in France. I saw it at the airport named after Charles De Gaulle, who once opined “A lion is made up of the lambs he digested.”

On the way into Paris from De Gaulle, I realized the following things: the French are very hygienic; the French like to wear blue; the French like to wear overalls; there are more women and small boys in France than men; the women wear purple dresses; the French favor the straight over the crooked; the French do not care for children’s heads; the brooms of France are wide, rich and revered; the broom can be likened to a crew cut; the broom is essentially French; ‘Mon Dieu’ is a term of affection; the French might possibly find life absurd, but in ancient Rome, absurd meant ‘deaf’ even though life is absurd.

I like Russia where men who are absurd starve to death. 

I like France where men are devoured by scrupulously disguised lambs-interiors.

I like the absurd when it is taken seriously as one might take a country or broom.