Mail Received - Erni Bär

[xx Jones]

This one makes me a bit sad. Erni sent this to me after he left IUOMA less than a week ago.

The typically large envelope full of stamps and stickers on the reverse side shows a large version of Erni the Art Hammer, which as far as I know, came from Antonin Grigori. It also includes also a message: Gestapo has just left the building.

Maybe I have to do some explaining, as this is a very intercultural community. Relating a German, some 60 years after the Great War to the Gestapo is not a light thing, and not because all Germans, as some English falsely assume don't have a sense of humour. They do, and Erni is living proof of that. But relating a peace loving German Buddhist, who probably would not want to hurt a fly, to Gestapo, I guess is where the buck stops. Not funny, just as other racist slurs are not funny. I remember my son going to primary school in London and being teased about being a German boy and liking Hitler. This was not funny at all, he took that badly. Up to that point he was bilingual, but from then on he refused to accept this part of his identity and stopped talking German. 

So maybe that is how Erni felt, and what made him leave the IUOMA building and schoolyard with all sorts of adolescent behaviour going on. He does not need that, he wrote to me. And he is right. I don't know, an apology to him may be due. I am saying this, because I would like to see Erni back. Anyway.

The envelope contained a collage with many of Ernis signature items, a crushed can, part of UHU packaging, an empty baby food lid, a torn piece of paper, an empty matchbox - things, I presume, he mostly found on one of his urban explorations. The scrap paper is funny to me because it says "Leseförderung entfallen !!!!" which means "Literacy Hour Cancelled!!!!" and seems to come from the hand of a child. In my work I teach literacy, so this is sweet. I am reading all sorts of things into this image, and as we know from semiotics that is what happens with an open work of art. A reader or viewer makes his own meaning. So I read in this somehow a story of growing up and growing old, learning, a circle fo life, innocence and experience. Look at that expression on the red haired girl's face. Sweet but knowing. Is she going to be a black widow some time in the future? Is she going to being crushed? Oh well, that is just me, rambling maybe. What do you feel?

[DKult Chaplain Dustin de Wind]

Wow, this is so sad. I didn't realize what was going on here. I guess I came in too late. I was just getting to know Erni!!! He was the sweetest guy.

[vizma bruns]

Yeah, life's too short for all that crap! Oh, especially if it ends tomorrow night!! 12 12 12!! Quick, drink that good champagne you've been saving for a special occasion!!!

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

The references were nasty...now they are deleted,

but how do you delete the hurt? 

Comments on the internet have a heavy impact...

we have to tread carefully with our words.

The key word here at IUOMA is : R - E - S - P - E - C - T

[vizma bruns]

Someone referred to him as Gestapo? That sucks...

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Timely blog, xxJones, so good to see ...and hoping that soon Erni will return,

and not need to see this on his packaging ever again, it is NOT "the End":

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Oh, Erni....we all feel

...when one in the community is hurt, we all hurt.