Letter from Switzerland

Je suis probablement la seule genevoise à avoir une colonne mensuelle (Letter from Switzerland) dans un magazine du Koweit : Rabaa (les lettre de son prénom sont les mêmes que dans le mien, a, b, r) est mon amie, et rédactrice en chef de ce féminin glamour.

Dear Rabaa, alias Sheherazade…

Welcome to Geneva ! And sorry for the terrible weather. Tons of water that happily enough, just stopped for the most beautiful fireworks we have had in years ! It was magic. I am so happy that you could share this great moment here in Geneva with your beautiful daughters.

But even more so, I was so pleased to have you with us at our traditional summer dinner, where I invite a number of friends, this year essentially from the art world. The fact that you accepted to join and your presence was a delight for all of us ! Thanks again dear Rabaa, it was great having you at home. And I was delighted that you met, among others, a friend journalist of mine, who writes for Le Matin Dimanche, the most read Sunday’s paper of the French speaking part of Switzerland. She was so astonished by you that the next Sunday she published this lovely paper where she talks about you and your family and your work with the magazine and all the poetry you put in it … and she calls you : Sheherazade ! Now everybody in Switzerland finally knows that Sheherazade is alive, who she is and where she lives and how beautiful she is indeed !

One of the reasons why I love Sheherazade is the same reason that makes me love to write. Sheherazade – literally “the girl of the city” – survived thanks to the words. The words, the stories, the books, the invention, the creation, the knowledge, are so much more important even than beauty – though depending on how we define beauty, words and stories and poems such as you write are beauty… .

Only her fascinating stories saved Sheherazade’s life… and we should teach our daughters how to tell stories. We should take care of their health and beauty, for sure, but even more so of their spirit and soul, and their ability to talk and write, night longs ! Telling our own life stories helps us indeed cope with our life more than any other effort. Everyone of us is the hero of his or her own destiny – of his or her own stories. And stories keep those around us full of attention, whether our children or the prince of our life – the words we tell are the ancestral basics of communication and they save lives !

Let’s then tell stories and teach our daughter’s how to tell their own: it’s mandatory for survival, and it’s magics. Even more so than our Geneva summer fireworks…

I wish you a safe trip back to Kuwait and come back soon !

Forever your’s

Barbara

Publié dans Bariqaldana, août 2007