About The Christopher Deliso Blog

This blog celebrates the singularities and unexpected revelations of the Balkans. That is on the good days. Other times there is just news from the 'industry' and my opinions on it.

The Hurricane

July 04, 2008 • Comments

Today in Skopje there was a massive wind rain and lightning storm that exploded out of the heat of day. A sudden deluge in the streets and soon you were waiting for an hour, to keep away from the rain crouching under eaves where sharp metal signs fell from the sheer force of the wind, smashing upon hitting the pavement.

I remembered another time in another place in the Balkans where it was good to feel warm from the rain outside and people passed quickly with heads down out the night windows. What I remember most though was it was all wood, smooth wooden tables and dark wood corners cozy and the story of the hurricane, careening violins and velvety soft tones. And everything was all right, and would get better fast like thunder.

Just a few hours earlier, a young man rushing past silvery rails portward was compelled to hastily buy a cheap umbrella from a street vendor, missing a connection, but making another, without having expected anything more from the skies than the rain. And it all ended up working out, as fate must. Or were they different occasions? The Balkans has a way of blending things to where they will belong...

It is truly a very old place and all of this reality and dream merge and there are innumerable stories from the inexhaustible generations that have lived here and passed here before. These images I recount above recur, even haunt me, as do many others that have been made equally intimate over time.

But these images recalled were only given the force of a great storm with a dream I had a few days ago. When there is a sense of loss so great you can only take solace from one dream in another, and can't tell which is more real or immediate- that is when you have become part of a place. And are compelled to tell the story, but obliged to leave out almost everything that once clung to it as fact.

To make them feel more than they can understand; this is the story of the hurricane.