“Hi lil’ rat!” “Hi Carmen! How did you know it was me?” “I read ROSA on my phone screen.” “What a nice full moon, right? What’s going on over there? Tell me!” “It’s my break week.” “Right. Then you must be watching Lebanese movies, skipping robe and reading who knows what odd stuff… As if I could see you through a peephole.” “Sharp view, Rose. What about you?” “Apart from my 18-hours-per-day job, not much. Oh, wait! What am I saying? I’ve had a crucial set of revelations!” “Sweet! Let me know about that, dear rat of mine.” “The thing is that I believe I’ve solved the three oldest questions of humankind.” “Oh my days!” “Oh my days?” “Yes! it’s a new expression I’ve recently learnt.” “I wonder how those Lebanese movies are subtitled these days…” “Don’t tell me, we come from a wave! I’ve always been sure a..” “No, no, no Carmen. It’s not about that. I’ve come to know how joy is actually built up, also how sadness is, even how art is.” “You kidding, right?” “Nope. I have the three answers… don’t you wanna find out? haha” “Out with it!!” “All right. Joy is the filling of an inner potential in the physical plane. It may happen with many of your potentials at the same time, but just one should be enough to feel like that. Your capacity is fully filled up and spills onto real life. And there it goes: joy! As simple as that.” “Awesome.” “Sadness is formed in the opposite way, an alien potential comes to the real plane and drops itself on your head, leaving your mental strengths buried” “Wow. Please go ahead.” “And art is the act of recognizing a recondite or essential part of oneself in something done by someone else, or by yourself in case of being an artist.” “ Hmm…” “What?” “Joy and sadness were ok, but in this one… doesn’t it sound too summarized?” “Hmm… what do you mean? I’m on a phone call, I have three minutes of break before going back to work again.” “Sorry, I said summarized, but I meant reducetionist, it is a reducetionist revelation Rosa, let me tell you. And it sounds postmodern. ” “Hmm…it could sound postmodern… so what!?” “ You sure you haven’t been reading the French gang lately?” “Enough! I don’t get time to even cut my nails in this shift of mine, I call you to share the most important conclusions I’ve reached in my life and you have nothing better to do than throw salt on my wound!” “ Aww Rosa, I’m so sorry about that.” “Fine! I’ve been listening the complete interviews of Deleuze on my headphones.” “All eight hours?! You mad!?” “Yeah… my boss would chop my hands if I held a book, so I’ve been playing those youtube videos on my cell, phone in pocket, in the middle of this din, pretending I was listening to the radio. I’ve earned every right to be a reducetionist. HAVEN’T I? Mental health and deep dissertations are incompatible with night shifts.” “ I don't think it posible for a person to work and listen to Deleuze over an earbud. But, lil' rat, I understand you."
