Schrebergarten

Mahagonny Matinee

Sometimes I think the world of so full of creativity and ease that I want to bust from it all. Other times, I think there really aren’t that many interesting things going on. I am seldom bored, really, but, when I am, I realize that it is really mild depression. I mean, how could anyone possibly be bored in this life? It is so full of things to learn. But, when I am bored nothing interests me. All of the things that I, at one time or another, have found interesting are, at that moment, dull. When someone is bored, it’s really because they themselves are being boring.

It’s a beautifully mild day today. My friend Amie and I have been searching for a Schrebergarten for about 2 and a half months now. Thank God, we finally found one. (Schrebergartens are those little gardens outside of town that a lot of Germans have: a little plot of their own to plant vegetables in, to build a hut on, and to spend time in during holidays, etc. Piled directly next to each other, almost always on what either once was or still is the rural areas bordering a town, the Schrebergarten plots of Germany look like little shanty towns outside of Soweto or something. Americans actually think, sometimes, that they are German ghettos when they are coming into Germany for the first time. Germany doesn’t have any ghettos, at least not by my standards, but, hey, I used to live in Cleveland. I guess that’s why German rap sounds so silly to me...) Anyway, we have a little garden now, and we have to renovate the little Schrebergarten house and start preparing the earth for after the last frost. Then we get to plant. My colleagues at the opera actually make fun of me for having one of these little gardens. They say that I have become more German than the Germans, because there is nothing more German than having a Schrebergarten. Most people who have them are very old, and have built up their Schrebergartens to be all that they could be (in the army.) They usually have everything they need to spend the entire day there: coffee machines, stoves, toilets, running water, beds or hammocks to take a nap in, even televisions. We just found out from our neighbor there that we are not supposed to work on Sundays in our garden. That is out of respect for our neighbors there who want to come out to the country and rest before the beginning of the week. Besides, my neighbor said, it says in the Bible to rest on the 7th day. (Tell that to my boss...)