Posted by Beckett on February 21, 2012, at 8:55:36
In reply to Re: Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory, posted by sigismund on February 20, 2012, at 20:28:06
This had me in tears, this transition here. There are more layers of meaning than I can say.
It's a long day. At the end of it I'm packing up everything to go, and Kathy says something to me out of nowhere. She says, do you think these people are mentally ill? Do you think it is possible they are making all this up? And I look at her as though for the first time, because I mean, let's be clear. She's my Chinese worker. I pay her for her time. I don't think about her very much at all. But now I really look at her. She is exactly who all these workers I've been talking to for weeks, she is exactly what they are all dreaming that their children will one day be. She has a good life in the center of Shenzhen for her, for her family. What does this look like to her?
I say to her, what do you think? Do you think they're mentally ill? And she suddenly looks very tired. She takes off her glasses, and she rubs the bridge of her nose. And she says, no, I do not think they are mentally ill. It's just that you hear stories, but you do not think it is going to be so much. You know? It's just so much.
And I reach across the table, and I touch her hand. It's the first and last time we will ever touch, I and this woman whose real name I don't even know. I say to her, I know exactly what you mean.
__________
*call my family/
/tell them I'm lost on the sidewalk
poster:Beckett
thread:1010258
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20110926/msgs/1011073.html