em 1955 Welles gravou uma série de episódios para a BBC chamada Around the World. o primeiro, "Chelsea's Pensioners" é uma viagem à velhice em Londres, onde Welles encontra os seus interlocutores: as viúvas de Hackney e os Chelsea Pensioner's do Royal Chelsea Hospital. é óbvio que Welles encontrou um modelo e que é esse modelo que ele quer mostrar. os idosos que vivem uma reforma ajudada, mas independente, conseguem manter a sua individualidade, a sua liberdade e a sua dignidade.
depois deste episódio, fascinei-me também com o modelo, tanto da casa para viúvas de Hackney, como especialmente do Royal Chelsea Hospital, uma instituição com séculos de história, onde residem centenas de ex-soldados. a instituição hoje está bem viva e acolherá também mulheres em 2009, pela primeira vez na sua história. o Royal Chelsea Hospital mantém-se e é suportado por donativos privados e pelas pensões dos seus residentes. a imagem diz muita coisa sobre o tratamento dado aos ex-soldados de idade avançada, sós e sem dependentes, que escolhem viver neste local. o hospital abriu recentemente as portas à televisão para as filmagens do documentário "Once a Soldier".
"welles' lesson on pluralities: a rumination of cows, a gulp of swallows, a murmuration of starlings, an eccentricity of great aunts.", citava a Emma que, em Boston, via as mesmas imagens que eu, praticamente ao mesmo tempo. assim somos hoje.
[texto completo: "You know, I used to have an extraordinary number of great aunts. Perhaps 'number' isn't the right word for it. We speak of droves and herds, and schools of fish, and a pack of wolves and a gaggle of geese. And a pride of lions - that's a wonderful expression - a pride of lions. And a rumination of cows - that's actually the expression - it's a herd of cattle and a rumination of cows. And a murmuration of swallows- or is it a surprise of swallows? I'm sure I don't know, and I'm certain I don't know how to describe a plurality of great aunts. An 'eccentricity of great aunts', maybe.
Certainly mine were numerous and a trifle on the eccentric side, and there was one - and this is why I was bringing this up - that was always described in our family as 'growing old gracefully'. Now, that isn't to say that the other great aunts were positively ungainly in the business of bearing the burden of their years, but this one, everone agreed, grew old gracefully. Well, it just happened, that she was the one with the most money. I think that's pretty obvious, I won't labor the point. Clearly it's much easier to be graceful about being aged if there's a little something put away in the sock, because of course, growing old is no joke. It's not only the loss of youth and vigor, but also the loss of friends and loved ones, and in all too many cases, the loss of ordinary human companionship. To be old and indigent is not just an economic problem, it can be a tragedy in human terms- the tragedy of loneliness. It's true that there's bound to be companionship of a kind in even the most crowded of state institutions for the aged, but all too often there's another sort of loss involved: a loss of dignity, and a loss of the sense of individuality."]
faltou a Emma a expressão "a pride of lions", um bando de leões mas, neste caso, também orgulho de leões. "The evening of life, in independent retirement", orgulho e dignidade.
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