The Underground Man - Part 59

They were sitting on the veranda of the Landhaus Süllberg in the heart of Blankenese overlooking river Elbe. Yellow and red leaves were falling by their sides. Autumn had started early that year. The days were mainly sunny. Weather forecasts had predicted a mild winter. Flowers were blossom the second time. People had returned form summer holidays, children were back to school. While the year had started in full swing with might, the last months to end the year was quiet all over the city. The air was filled with the dull feeling of uncertainty that did not cause fear but made people stay in their waiting position. Politically not much would change while waiting for the New Year to show up.

They had ordered sweet and sour chicken crunchy with glass noodle soup as a starter. For years past the family from China had taken over ownership of the traditional restaurant high above sea level surrounded by the hill sides for which Blankenese was world famous for. When walking down the many stairs between houses in which originally captains steering big ships around the world would have had their places of rest among each other, more and more folks had moved into the area and pushed the old traditional generations aside by offering good money to buy their properties, visitors had the feeling to be in Italy enjoying a good walk in the sun. Closing eyes to look left and right, only straight forward not to miss a single step and avoid falling down, the feeling of Italy was too present for anyone not to enjoy seeing houses standing close next to each other. As much as this place was beautiful, the roads winding down from the top to the river were too small, a single lane only and to carry anything into the houses needed strong men and women to carry food and water down home.

Paul enjoyed the sun on his face stretching out arms and legs making him nearly falling of the chair: "Life is wonderful...I am telling you. Not easy...but in the end wonderful!"

"I agree...totally...yes, oh!" mentioned Anna while finishing her fried banana covered in honey topped with vanilla ice-cream. "Life is good or bad the way you like to see it. When you go through tough times and life seems to bring you down, you are down. But when you understand, life is a journey to learn from level to level...life becomes a great adventure...only be patient and believe...then everything will work out for your own good. Never rush life, let life have a right to life itself!"

"As you always keep saying...shouting even into my ears, chocolate is the only thing in this world that by itself makes us humans happy...never forget it. Not a jet, not an expensive car, not a title of greatness...only this small little thing called chocolate!" was Paul stretching himself seeing that Anna was bending over and took a chocolate half-finished out from her beg. Life...life itself...what a great concept!" laughed Paul looking around seeing no other guests except both of them. "Behind me in Sülldorf where my ex-wife moved into a new apartment with the father of my ex-son, there I remember so many things that had happen in my life...so many!"

"When you look back while you have to move forward, you are not worth the kingdom of the lord!" reminded Anna him of the scripture.

"Yes, yes I know!" was Paul responding enjoying the last bite of the chocolate gotten for free. It was a smooth tastes yet not the best chocolate can give to people as not produced in any country of origin, a country of cocoa beans, second quality only. "It is good to think back sometimes and be proud of how far you have come in life, which lesson you had to learn and which test to pass; that helps you to be more conscious of what is important in your life and what you can pass on to others and future generations. We simply pass through this life and pass on our inheritance to the people that follow us...that is all we do basically!"

"Very true!" mentioned Anna while paying the bill presented to them. She insisted it would be her turn, next time his. They got up and walked down the stairs to reach at the bottom at the Strand Hotel, white shinning in the afternoon sun as usual. Drivers were turning their cars into the opposite direction at the end of the curve just before the hotel. Airbus Industries was visible to their left, Wedel and Wittenbergen to their right. They decided to walk along the water front in the sand.

"My ex-wife while she was married to me and had cheated on me with her son´s boy-friend living in his apartment, cheated on him with other men before moving out from her son´s father´s apartment!" laughed Paul looking at Anna intensively.

"What a complicated story...cheating here and cheating there and a child in between that most likely does not know where to belong to...right?"

"Very well!" said Paul moving on seeing the Waseberg in the distance, a steep hill used during Hamburg Cyclassics each year as a driver´s test not easy at all even to walk up step by step. "But to judge her and condemn her actions is okay on a human level, very understandable as she had made so many people in this world suffer, but on the other hand my wife that I have now, an angel given from God, is someone I would have never gotten as my reward. And all the promises God has given us, would have never come to us. In other words, the evilness of my ex-wife has pushed me into a glorious life that otherwise I would have never seen!"

"That seems to be the answer...yes!"
"That is the answer...yes!" laughed Paul again watching a giant container vessel coming down the river passing Willkommenshöft in Wedel, the only place in the world to greet incoming ships with their national anthem giving information about the ships over loudspeakers to the restaurant guests next to the station that also paid a farewell tribute to the crew on deck when leaving Hamburg Port again.

Anna started to change the topic and started arguing: „We live in a corrupt world, a world that is upside down!"

"What do you mean by that?"
"Think of professional football!" asked Anna sitting down below the Blankeneser Light House that had seen a renovation few months prior. "The footballers get so much money, no Heart Surgeons saving lives of thousands, even of potentially football players, in all their life-time will never earn that much money like the top players or ranks below them. While a player is only entertaining people, such doctors have invested years and years into their education and save lives. So, what is more important in this world, entertainment or saving lives?"

"Saving lives, of course!" supported Paul his friend that started more and more to get angry.

"And when I see such professional clubs make so much profit but we, the general public even when we do not like that sport at all, have to bear the costs of security for the matches of such clubs. To top it all the transfer fees and drama involved are in my eyes nothing but modern kind of slavery...disgusting!"

"What do you mean by that?"
"Even a footballer can say no to a transfer legally, in reality it is decided above his head and he will be pushed wherever others want him to be...not in all cases, but in most. When you consider that in business managers being under contract with another company are not transferred in the same manner but have the same impact to the business model that we are talking about, than the disgrace is obvious. Medical checkup before the new contract is signed is very much like looking a slave into the mouth, checking his teeth, his muscles, his fitness to be used on the hot cotton fields of Texas and Alabama. There is in its basics no difference...except that many people enjoy this sport be it politicians or celebrities for which reason they would never do something against it and what is right to be done...rather cheer the people behind the scene involved on to greater heights. Most certainly it is true that attractive football can also be played these days without such transfer fees to take the modern form of slavery out of football and bring back sense that entertains fans all around the world."

"Your ideas are correct...but!" opened Paul his eyes wide.

"But what?" asked Anna getting up to walk further towards Wittenbergen taking the small road behind the camping side that saw caravans ready for transport to end a successful and enjoyable season.

"Let us be realistic...very realistic, my dear", started Paul to lecture her from his life-experience, "when so many people like it is for football stand behind that sport and all levels of society support the politics of the sport more or less, please, do not be so naive to believe that in any form what is practiced yet utterly wrong and against any normal thinking and humanitarian standard, even human rights rules, will ever be questioned by people? They will only look at you, no matter what the truth of your ideas are, and insult you, will try anything to shout you up. The truth of life, let me tell you this, is only for strong characters to question and discuss and potentially to change. What is convenient to the mind of many, of Millions on all levels of society, guess what...trust me on that...will end you faster in mental hospital than you can breathe and say Amen."

"You mean, I should not tell the truth and speak my mind seeing many go the wrong way for their own convenience?" questioned Anna rebelling against the attempt to suppress anything that could change the world and bring it onto the path of truth.

"You are just one person that has one idea, your own...and you stand against Millions that feel comfortable in their thinking, that go out each weekend to watch the game of their favorite team, using the days between weekends to discuss the results and performances of various teams, that spent hours after hours and money endlessly in betting offices to lose or win small money, that work hard during the day for others that make profit from their sweat, their labor in factories and offices, in the air and high sea...here and elsewhere...that such people would lent you an ear to bring them out of their comfort zone that gives their life sense, a meaning, something to get involved in during their spare time when not eating, drinking, having sex, marrying and divorcing? Do not think that too many people on this planet have an interest to think and think well, to discover themselves, to ask questions, to doubt, to fight, to believe...to invent, to go their own ways regardless of obstacles on their way...just moving on, pressing on?"

"Should I condemn such people that are wasting their time here on earth?"

Paul corrected Anna by saying: "To judge people is not by you; you do not have to do that. These people, the majority around you, live their lives as they want it. It is their decision. For that you can only say that you feel pity for them and let them walk their ways. But what you can do is to condemn anything they think and do when it comes to people like yourself that have set out to get their stone, that worship God, take him as their personal savior, ask for temporary helpers, natural and spiritual helpers, work day in and day out on yourself, discover what is in you from level to level, be on your own when needed to hear his voice, his message that speak only to your heart, leave other aside and stay focused. When thinking and actions come against you, God will open your eyes and empower you to overcome whatever needs to be put down for the truth to step on the wrong and let the world see the world and the word of the Lord."

"Amen...Amen...and Amen!" shouted Anna loud out for others to turn round wondering what strange words she was using in the middle of a late afternoon while preparing their children to return back home.

"I only wonder that in our time of age, people kill each other too much...not only in the USA with their stupid mass shootings and nothing is done about it, tears every week in innocent faces over innocent dead bodies. But also in England, these days knife violence is rampant, people go after each other just like that with no respect for life", complained Paul resting at Wittenbergen Light House before taking the last stretch towards the coal power station in Wedel with his two towers that could be seen from far.

"I remember an actress, she was drunken, jealous person anyway, and had an argument with her boy-friend. A pistol laid on the living room table", said Anna thinking back to a woman after being released from prison had been guest in talk shows telling her story for others to feel pity for her, spending most of her time on Mallorca caring for abandoned dogs mistreated by their owners, "and shot her boy-friend dead. She did not serve for murder, but got punishment only for manslaughter freed after few years behind bars. I often think of that lady. I mean, she knew that alcohol does not make her think well, she knew that she was a jealous person, she knew in an argument with her boy-friend she would be violent...and only because there was a gun on the living room table she shot him, took the life of a human...and did not get was she was supposed to get because the law is saying so? A life was lost because a woman did not have herself under control even she was able to do so before she entered the apartment of her boy-friend?"