What does a Hungarian joke have to do with your life script?
Morris: three tigers and two elephants
There are a few jokes that I brought with myself from Hungary… that describe the human condition very well.
One of them is an elementary school joke: Morris is asked to say the multiplication table… with 8.
He starts to chant… lalala-lala lalala… lalala lala lalala…
What is this? Asks the stunned teacher? Oh, I remember the tune, but can’t recall the words… answers Morris.
Several of my students, maybe all, got stuck in an childhood age, resulting from a decision to fix a traumatic incident.
— One almost choked on a grape before her father rescued her… but after he finished a business call on the phone… while she was choking.
She is a pretty girl, but she thought that had she been smart and intelligent, then she would have been saved. But she doesn’t know the words of smart and intelligent… she only knows the tune…
— Another one was locked into a car on a hot summer day, while his father forgot about him and took a nap. He was saved… but… he decided that had she been somebody, not a nobody, she would have been saved faster.
She looks at people who are somebody, but she sees only what they do now, visibly, not what it took for them to be able to do that… and no…
