much in a piece of advice obviously influenced by external circumstances? The answer is yes; in fact, maybe I should obey it all the more because it touched me so deeply.
North and south. Nothing more. Look for the north; look for the south. Don’t stop traveling between them.
14
Listen to yourself when you’re angry
My father didn’t have a car but we went to the car pound every Saturday to shout at the guard. It’s fun
.
—Jordi, an Egghead whose hair never fell out. Strange kid.
Sometimes you’ve got to let it all out. It’s a law of life. Shout three or four times into the air. Either that or you’ll explode.
There was an Egghead in the hospital who told us that he sometimes went with his father to the car pound; his father would shout at the duty officer there. He’d say that they should be ashamed of themselves, that they wanted to make him pay 120 euros; he got angry and shouted to the heavens. After ten minutes or so they’d head off. The police had never taken his dad’s car; it was just that the dad had found a place where he could go to let off steam. The wrong place? Well, of course the poor duty officer didn’t deserve that kind of explosion of anger directed at him. Sometimes I think aboutthose police officers, or the people who deal with lost luggage at an airport. Where do
they
go to let off steam? How can they want to go to work each morning?
I think that the father of Jordi the Egghead (an Egghead with hair—weird, weird) went to the wrong place: There must be easier ways to blow off some steam. In the hospital we sometimes shouted at a tape recorder. It was the idea of one of the cancer residents who came to see us every Saturday.
He was young and wanted to change the world. Now he’s the head of the department and the armor plating that most doctors end up wearing has made him forget all that. But I’m here to remind him about it. It’s good when people remind you of the worthwhile things you’ve done.
The resident brought a tape recorder and we took turns letting it rip. We said everything that really upset us. There were some of us who found a lot to shout about. For instance, it’s terrible when you think they’re going to give you a pass for the weekend and they end up not giving it to you. We shouted; we got rid of everything that was annoying us and getting us down. Other people said nothing; they just looked at you.
Then the resident made us listen to the recording. It was always a fascinating moment: to hear yourself shouting, to hear yourself angry, sounding like a madman, paranoid. Suddenly, everything that had seemed to make sense, that you would have defended a second ago, seemed baseless. It was as if your anger dissipated with the echo of your rage.
The echo of rage has this power: the power to minimizeyour anger, the power to show you how ridiculous it is to shout and throw your toys out of the stroller.
Who better than you to put up with all your shouting? Try it, you’ll feel better; and little by little you’ll stop shouting, stop getting annoyed, and, above all, you won’t shout at other people. You’ll see how ridiculous you are when you get like that.
15
Positive wanking
You are who you really are after a wank
.
—a physiotherapist who didn’t manage to give me bigger quadriceps but who was a funny guy nonetheless
I’m very much in favor of wanking. A few years ago I wrote a play called
Wank Club
. My passion for wanking comes from the bad press that it gets. People always talk about wanking a bit disrespectfully, as a joke, as if it were something from the second division.
I’m extremely interested in wanking, especially what people hide behind it. Sometimes it’s unrecognized passion, sometimes it’s excessive love, sometimes it’s sex, sometimes shame, sometimes hidden desires. Wanking always tells you more about a person than all the personal details you ask them.
“You are who you really are after a wank.” A physiotherapisttold me
North and south. Nothing more. Look for the north; look for the south. Don’t stop traveling between them.
14
Listen to yourself when you’re angry
My father didn’t have a car but we went to the car pound every Saturday to shout at the guard. It’s fun
.
—Jordi, an Egghead whose hair never fell out. Strange kid.
Sometimes you’ve got to let it all out. It’s a law of life. Shout three or four times into the air. Either that or you’ll explode.
There was an Egghead in the hospital who told us that he sometimes went with his father to the car pound; his father would shout at the duty officer there. He’d say that they should be ashamed of themselves, that they wanted to make him pay 120 euros; he got angry and shouted to the heavens. After ten minutes or so they’d head off. The police had never taken his dad’s car; it was just that the dad had found a place where he could go to let off steam. The wrong place? Well, of course the poor duty officer didn’t deserve that kind of explosion of anger directed at him. Sometimes I think aboutthose police officers, or the people who deal with lost luggage at an airport. Where do
they
go to let off steam? How can they want to go to work each morning?
I think that the father of Jordi the Egghead (an Egghead with hair—weird, weird) went to the wrong place: There must be easier ways to blow off some steam. In the hospital we sometimes shouted at a tape recorder. It was the idea of one of the cancer residents who came to see us every Saturday.
He was young and wanted to change the world. Now he’s the head of the department and the armor plating that most doctors end up wearing has made him forget all that. But I’m here to remind him about it. It’s good when people remind you of the worthwhile things you’ve done.
The resident brought a tape recorder and we took turns letting it rip. We said everything that really upset us. There were some of us who found a lot to shout about. For instance, it’s terrible when you think they’re going to give you a pass for the weekend and they end up not giving it to you. We shouted; we got rid of everything that was annoying us and getting us down. Other people said nothing; they just looked at you.
Then the resident made us listen to the recording. It was always a fascinating moment: to hear yourself shouting, to hear yourself angry, sounding like a madman, paranoid. Suddenly, everything that had seemed to make sense, that you would have defended a second ago, seemed baseless. It was as if your anger dissipated with the echo of your rage.
The echo of rage has this power: the power to minimizeyour anger, the power to show you how ridiculous it is to shout and throw your toys out of the stroller.
Who better than you to put up with all your shouting? Try it, you’ll feel better; and little by little you’ll stop shouting, stop getting annoyed, and, above all, you won’t shout at other people. You’ll see how ridiculous you are when you get like that.
15
Positive wanking
You are who you really are after a wank
.
—a physiotherapist who didn’t manage to give me bigger quadriceps but who was a funny guy nonetheless
I’m very much in favor of wanking. A few years ago I wrote a play called
Wank Club
. My passion for wanking comes from the bad press that it gets. People always talk about wanking a bit disrespectfully, as a joke, as if it were something from the second division.
I’m extremely interested in wanking, especially what people hide behind it. Sometimes it’s unrecognized passion, sometimes it’s excessive love, sometimes it’s sex, sometimes shame, sometimes hidden desires. Wanking always tells you more about a person than all the personal details you ask them.
“You are who you really are after a wank.” A physiotherapisttold me
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