Talk fifty three.
WashingtonD.C., 07th April
- Today is Easter Sunday. It couldn’t be without a visit to the Polish Roman Catholic Parish of Our Lady Queen of Polish and St. Maximilian Kolbe in the Washington DC metropolitan area, to get the festive food blessed.
- We played like children painting eggs and preparing the “blessing basket” with the festive food to be blessed in church. A bottle of white wine found its place next to a ring of sausage and other delicacies.
- We're all here together. How nice that Renata invited to spend Easter with us here at her place, our common friend Teresa who came all the way from Pennsylvania. Teresa and her husband Leszek have been living in the U.S.A 20 years. Their daughter - Magda lives here in Washington, DC, doing a career in the U.S. government.
- There’s Terenia in California, this is Teresa from Pennsylvania. Will there be anyone else of the same?
- I’ve got a lot of friends and acquaintances. The entire alphabet of names, if that's what you mean.
- All the Poles whom we met in the U.S. are successful and happy here. There are no losers here, are there?
- We just don’t meet them on our way. I assure you that you would find your place here, as well.
- I have already found mine in Poland and I don’t want any changes. You had been looking for your place for so many years. You’ve crossed America several times, so?
- All the time I have been making choices. I hope they were the right ones.
- I remember that in 1976 it was the first time you had an opportunity of staying in the United States for good. Then again in 1978, and again in 1979 and ...
- Well, let me tell you about my choices in a chronological order.
- On condition that you will not be boring.
- Surely, you would like it to be spicy and funny all the time.
- It’s you who likes hot food.
- Here I am referring to spicy language on my sex life.
- Fine with me. The more the better.
- But there won’t be any of it because it's a serious matter, and at that stage of my life, essential. So, in 1976 I chose not to stay on the U.S., despite the fact that I had no bounds in my country, nobody except immediate family, was waiting for me, and actually I was dying for a change in my life.
- What made you go back to Poland, though?
- I have no answer to this question. Maybe I was prompted by my fate (providence?)
- Do you believe in destiny?
- I don’t. But listen. Those were the early years of AIDS. Nobody yet knew about it, but the disease had already been spreading. If I’d been then in the U.S., I assume, I’d would’ve started fairly intensive search for my place in life, and the probability of a foolish approach to sex was quite high.
- Thus, you didn’t risk getting HIV.
- How would I’ve known about the threat? In 1978, I did not know anything about the disease, but I had a partner in Poland, so the choice of my returning home was even more obvious.
- Although the offer of staying in California was tempting, wasn’t it?
- Not enough to condemn myself to the loneliness and faking not being gay. Do you remember the conditions that John, my potential boss, had set?
- To pretend being straight in California? It's paradoxical.
- Today, some people choose to pretend to be gay to get a job! So, I returned home once again, and there I got my prize!
- You got appreciated by the commune!
- Do not be silly! SOLIDARITY came to life. Today I can say again that it was a reward for my previous decisions of returning to Poland after my trips abroad.
- This "prize" didn’t last too long.
- Unfortunately, it didn’t. We know how it went on. And I found my own way out, and as a result I left Poland for Sweden.
- We heard all about it.
- Actually, we heard about everything. It’s time to slowly finish off our talks.
- We still have almost two weeks before we go back home. I hope we still have something to talk about?
- Sure. It’s time to talk about you.
- There’s not much to talk about.
- There’s something to be found. I’ll ask you some questions.
- Keep trying.
