Sunday 4 October 2009

Dinner guest

Everyone needs someone like The Hat in their lives.

The Hat always arrives at a party; she is the party.

Aged 60, blonde, beautiful, swathed in painted mixes of tawny velvets, sparkling silks, embroidered canvas, she comes to dinner tonight, with us, and makes us special.

She dances into our house, bringing from her swinging catch-all handbag made of multicolours, exotic gifts for the children garnered from Kuwait, Iran, Japan. And with her comes all rich and complex wonders of the world - philosophy, literature, art, and culture, brought to us. And then she will cha cha cha in our kitchen.

She unfolds everything in her that is warm and wonderful, transforms our meal of left overs and last week's vegetables with a rich exotic sauce, brings warm raspberries and fresh clotted cream ice-cream. Our kitchen warms with her generous heart, kind words, and all of her humanity.

If she suffers loneliness or insecurities, it never shows. The Hat shows us only what is possible; all happiness, possibility, all embrace.

The Hat arrives. Here is the Hat. Cha cha cha.