Between the Stillness …

.. and the Grove

- by Erika de Vasconcelos

a reminder:

Zivart: mother to Vecihe

Vecihe + Bedros: parents to Tomas

Tomas + Dzovig

Aghavnee slept w/ Mr. Hagopian (but can now not remember who Mr. Hagopian was!!!)

Cara’s thoughts and quotes:

Arza’s cruelty towards Anahid

Anahid’s unhappiness manifesting itself by her not eating

Vecihe and Hrach (Hagopian): I threw my words at him all the same, because he had presented me with the possibility of obtaining something I hadn’t realized I wanted, a freedom I could barely contemplate. I looked at that possibility now as if it were spread before me in the pages of a book, a book of unexpressed and forbidden longing, and in my anger I cursed him for having opened it.

Armenian irony: We Armenians are very good at walking. (their stoic acceptance of the fate of their people)

Aghavnee – is she the symbol of the Armenian past? a haunting reminder to Zivart, Vecihe’s mother, of all that had happened or rather a comfort to her?

Vecihe’s haven: Dzovig looked to the edge of the grass, the line where the earth suddenly dropped off and she felt herself unsteady, held up on a plate by some invisible hand.

how long faith can last and the people that either cling more closely to their religion or abandon it in frustration: God holds me suspended … except I do not believe in God. For many years I have known that God does not exist and therefore I feel for a moment, I feel almost nothing. (Vecihe on hearing that her son Tomas has shot and killed himself)

loss: All the things we’ve ever lost will be given back to us. I believe that. (Tito)

Every beginning is unmeant. (Pessoa)

Pessoa was always a visitor in his own life

Dzovig – the waters washed off her memories? It seemed to be a kind of rebirth.