Pr. Dr. Dorin Octavian Picioruș
Fragrance
(novel)
*
Niculaie was loved from the shadow, but so was Ilie Moromete, his father. Fica was disturbing through her courage in love, reaching to make light on his mind. Because when you feel the love, when you feel how you are loved, you realize that you are at home in her heart and that there is no need to say anything anymore, because this is also your truth. She told him his nickname, how his wife called him Mutu and how he saw her without looking at her. And how she couldn’t live without him, even though he had given her 3 boys, and that her love for him had killed her. And her younger sister, Fica, wanted to marry her then-brother-in-law, but she considered herself too young for him, although the age difference never goes away. The old Moromete, Ilie, that’s what we’re talking about, the central personage of the encounter with the Teleorman pre- and post-war, knowing love in old age, no longer looks at the world’s grin. Because the fools, he says, grin anytime and no matter what you do. And the world doesn’t matter anymore, when you want to fulfill yourself in life. Whoever does not have courage, whoever does not believe in himself and his vocation, whoever does not take action, remains afraid of the world, is afraid, does not want to be discussed. And if you do not want to be envied by others, you do not matter. But if you believe in your writing, in your color, in the chisel with which you sculpt your future, you become the books of humanity, people will write about you for centuries, because you did not care about the world’s mouth.
„How is this hapenning, Dorine father, how come you don’t care?! Don’t you think about us, about our house, about what the world is saying?!!”. No, no one in my house said it! Neither grand- father Marin, nor father. No one said it. Because they thought I could do anything I put my mind to. And I really liked this much-loved freedom, because I found fulfillment through it. Clara follows the daily news, fights with the bad commentators, excludes extremists, in turn being considered partisan. But she tells them she’s putting up a common front with the truth and that she is not afraid to preach it everywhere. But an old journalist like her knows recent history, knows the threads of our lives. But, above all, she can look at things in depth, because she doesn’t get lost in the details. The news reader looks at them disparately, as if they had no relationship with each other. But the journalist knows that they are a puzzle. Because you must put them all on the table, see the interpenetration between them, and that’s how you have the key to the discussion.
When she published some of her articles in the book, I realized that she has sources in the parties. That people really talk to her. And they talk out of party interest, but also for small backstage revenge. These people talk, they make jokes together, they run election campaigns together, but they also sell each other out. And this is over minor things. For an inappropriate remark, for receiving a position that someone else wanted, for taking the party in the wrong direction from the perspective of some. No, it’s not just money that matters at this level, but also public image! And for the image, words to the press are a power capital, gained through Clara’s keys, not directly. The stable parliamentarian is the one who takes the microphone and speaks in public. He takes responsibility for his words. The one who lacks self-confidence prefers to stay behind the scenes, prefers leaking information to the press. And, often, Clara made important revelations, precisely because her sources, obviously from inside, spoke with all their mouth.
What do you do, however, when sources lie to you, when they mislead you, giving you half-truths? So that you don’t fall like a pheasant into a trap, you must quote and interpret things within the perimeter of what you know. You must have the horizon of plausibility. Don’t launch into bombshell revelations, if you have doubts. Or, if you do, you must emphasize the fact that you received this information and that it is not the result of your deductions. Those who deduce the things, who assume that the things will happen according to the premises, exclude the unexpected from the calculation. But the unexpected, in life and in politics, is the order of the day! When you think everything will be fine, someone comes along shouting, the lights go out, you get stuck in the elevator, you get injured on the crosswalk. But in a newspaper article you can’t include logic and subatomic physics in the same sentence. The logic must clarify the reader, make him think, so that he has the joy of understanding what the article was about, but the life is subatomic, because it involves many thoughts and not just one. And the article should be a film, not a piece of writing, so that you find out that there are many nuances to take into account. But the journalist doesn’t make films, she draws conclusions and she must not be fundamentally wrong.
Does Ilona talk to Clara like sisters? Yes and no! Because the distrust started from their mother, who, since they were little, made them compete. Maria, the Teacher, their mother, was of the opinion that blood ties had nothing to do with the competition, because in life you have to compete with everyone. And they, the children, did not talk to each other when they were little, they hid from each other, or they used words only to win over the other. And this fight for supremacy made them strangers to each other, because, although they talk to each other, they never confess their true thoughts, feelings, accomplishments.
