EXACTLY AS I REMEMBERED IT

I went back in time for a moment. Through that old city again. A tunnel here. A completely different house there. That intersection, it had to change for a long time. Completely changed. How do they do that, huh? Everything changes and yet everything remains the same, as it were.
I still recognized that old windmill on the Noordendijk. Stream, that’s something completely different. Definitely different from what it used to be. At the harbor the ducdalven are still slanted for a while. The water flows in the same way. Not a bit has changed. The restaurant on the tip of the harbor still looks perky. A little beyond that I still see many ships sailing. Many ships are bigger. But the waves are still the same and have white heads. It’s a pleasant image.
How long has it been since I was here. Or maybe I should say I was here a lot. Now ferries sail in and out. Ships lay here. With cargo to take in provisions before a long journey. Now even those journeys don’t last that long. The quay is not empty, but no longer with so much potential. There’s potential in every load. Even in every empty ship. This can be used for trading, loading and unloading. This can be used to earn money to feed mouths.
Now there are many cars, dead money, empty potential. If a car is already potent, it loses its value much faster than a human being. That’s striking. And people are walking. They are all traveling. From work to work. From school, to school. Truants? You don’t see them anymore. If they play truant at all, then behind a phone or computer. Even man, the young man has less potential. How do I see that? Now if someone is playing truant, there may be a lot more in it and it won’t come out for a while. Hiding behind the computer or telephone at home or in a remote corner, then there is only wasteful potential. So no potential.
I’m really not saying that everyone should just play truant from school or work. Only that we all make it such a big issue when people don’t work for a while. For free, we must also have a legitimate reason. “Yes, he needs a vacation!” But what are we actually saying? And what do people mean?..
What people say in essence, I completely agree with that. But with what we mean, I have a small problem with that several times. Let’s be honest, usually people just mean that there is a reason for his absence, an identifiable one?…
And that’s why I say “No”. Look essentially vacation is emptiness. The word already has it in it. Just hear “va – side – ie”. This word comes from VACANT, or emptiness. Yes, we all need them! But that was not what was meant.
Anyway, the quay is not empty, but it is emptier. Perhaps the only real vacation these days is for things. They become army. Just think of the batteries we use for everything. At the tank of the car. To the cup that used to contain a lot of coffee.
Yes, I think army is good. But especially for humans. That makes you play truant from what you’re used to doing. Nothing at all or something completely different. That will make you better. How? Simply by waiting for a new attunement or hunch.
Visiting old cities also makes sense. I walk on. The Stronghold, nothing has changed. I actually still have to cry a little when I see that clock with those beautiful hands and that convex tower. Many must have cried here in the past… Women who saw their tough men go to sea. Or if they came back. Crying for potency, pure potency. That’s powerful. I feel the international city.
Walking further I almost only see yachts. But luckily there is a brown fleet. There are real ships in the harbour. They can load. Although now they are all living rooms under the pendulum tree, brandels and shutters. Yet it feels like a piece of history, history with potential. Where is the power? Where you wouldn’t expect it. The old warehouses also have a lot of potential. Even if it is living, there was the stored power.
Maybe I should also give cars back their potential. After all, they can carry powerful people. Oh the time is different.
I walk on. The Long Iron Bridge. It still opens and closes. Here I used to walk from the ferry, with my strong grandfather, across the bridge, to the fish shop with the delicious eel. I can still see them slipping over each other in the granite stone basin. Pure potency. Though they were imprisoned, you still felt their power. Their heads fell off. They moved for a while, sometimes until we got home. They were smoked or steamed. With such a dish on your plate, you could enjoy eel in butter sauce.
The fish shop is long gone and so are the bins, although the memory remains. I look over the next bridge and let my eyes go up. The symbol of strength of a city and city rights. The Dom lives up to its name. She is slightly crooked. Lots of potential, just like the tower of Pisa. No matter how long you look, she won’t fall over. In the long front street there are many businesses with people who don’t want to eat at home for a while. I look past the corner. The name Prinsenstraat has always made me dream. I turn towards the water. A small harbor and there again that river. This city lives up to its name and history. She never passed her true nature. An island in itself, but connected by bridges in this time, it still has the potential it has long possessed. The home port of many ships and their crew.
I continue and walk over ancient stones. Called children’s heads. A strange name when you walk over here. The name of the port also suggests something strange. Yet again it was small fishing vessels that bore this name: Bommen. They were flat on the bottom and could remain flat on the bottom in a tidal harbor and, if necessary, be pulled out of the water onto the quay.
I remember. When I turn around, I look at the building and its entrance. I lived here for so long. It still looks exactly as I remembered it. An old converted warehouse, a somewhat rough design of the entrance, which possibly connects this city with Rotterdam. It’s pure potency, just as I remembered it.