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Rock, paper, scissors

Why paper and scissors should always win.

By Lau CostantiniPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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It started with a cut actually…We lost our house…we lost all our money, years of hard work gone...we had to leave the country of the ancestors of my children and come back to this country that was once home. I ‘m still calling us lucky.

Lucky because we can still pay for a house…it might have been the house of no colours, but it was a house.

Lucky because we managed to ship some of our stuff, most of it gone or stored at friends but some furniture made their way and a few boxes with random art supplies and vintage paper music, yeah music ranks high priority in our family, under every form.

Lucky because we did not have money for outings, afterschool classes, entertainment, holidays but we had food…and the food supermarket publishes a nice newspaper every week and magazine every month. Both contain amazing photos, vibrant colours, interesting angles, and they are given for free to their customers.

They were strangely uplifting, only glimpse at what was going on in the world, too beautiful to throw away I thought. There was probably a way to avoid wasting them, but I had no space to store all of them after a few months….so I started cutting and organise the clippings…who knows…might be used somewhere, sometimes, some ways…. And it’s funny how on their own, out of the page, all the fruits and vegs came alive, the characters from entertainment page seemed to start a new career path, the items from the shopping section had another mission in the Universe and don’t even start me on the cakes and desserts and biscuits, they had suddenly a life of their own!

Whole stories were shaping up. My kitchen table being the recipient of so many story boards, the kids started to play around , moving all the cuttings, having them interacting in funny ways…but then at dinner time everything needed to go back in the box…all the colours trapped again, a little bit like our feelings really, all trapped in that box, between the evident gratitude of being warm and fed and schooled and together, and the sorrow of all the good byes and life past. Add a topping of pandemics and shake.

The house with no colours became our only world, the kitchen table more and more cramped as my two eldest came back from university to stay with us.

Lucky to be together.

The cutting went on, the playing went on, more players meaning more stories until the day I started cutting images of wall papers and thunder struck! We couldn’t change the colours of the wall by painting them but what about a temporary wallpaper? I had suddenly flashes of teenage bedroom. All the colours, the entire world really was there, bursting out of the wall, barely contained by mismatched pins, and fuelled by dreams still daring to be big.

We could change the colours of our life after all, without needing to battle with landlord which is always an upside…We could use gift wrapping paper, but will it be sturdy enough? And it’s costing a bit more at this time of year and it kind of drown the stories and…. wait a minute, I found it! The happy shout of the forager whatever it is the forager is after! All that vintage music paper waiting in another box, would make the perfect basis and save us even that little money…And just like that we might even change the tune of our lives too….

Old music sheets went on the wall with a splash of paint to revive them, and on went the telling the tale too. Nina Simone was singing “feeling good” and a first dragon fly emerged with wings of avocado, thank you #kid3, the second with a carrot body, #kid4 intervention and now it was a thing. It took us over. Like the Christmas puzzle… Declared boring every year when acquired with the rest of the trimmings. At some point around the carving of the turkey, everyone present except one (guess who) pretends they are not interested. Still at some point in the limbo between the unconscious nibbling of a 13th mince pie and considering changing into pj’s, the puzzle is out, supported by tradition keeper and here they come one by one, stopping on their way to the fridge just to have a look. At 2 in the morning, you fight over the pieces, and you realise #kid4 fell asleep in the sofa with mince pie stuck in her hair.

Don t change a winning team and you get that Christmas puzzle miracle all over again! Family fun with a twist in times of pandemic. #4 might fall asleep on puzzle but on the wallpaper file, there was no stopping here. She created the idea of a red thread between the pages with the pink mushroom house with the snazzy, in her own words, starling bird as tenant riding a VW van (in order previously a birthday cake on the celebration catalogue, a picture of the week page about observing birds and a van right out July 2018 “Summer Life”) …. That wall became our wall of fun, our wall of fame, the first time we really reconnected as a family since the big cut and all this because of cutting…

It would be a beautiful story just like this, but a good Hollywood scenario now needs a few more bumps to keep audience entertained and I sense you are all mellowed now and slightly slouching in your chair but BAM during lockdown number 2, the shower top floor started leaking! The landlord delayed in acting and water started pouring along our wall and damaged our beautiful wallpaper…#1 and #2 were back to Uni, it suddenly felt like we were back to square 1, there was definitely a drop in the mood. The winter dragged on for ever, hibernation mode, muted colours…deep down though seeds had been planted…

Lockdown number 3 eased, shower was finally fixed, and we were able to go out for the first time, back to our pub for my born day, yay! After maybe one too many drinks, the beautiful XVIIth century wood panels of the wall, the way they decorated the walls and isolated the house from the cold back then, started looking very similar to a succession of canvases…canvases that I had just received as a birthday gift…sweet epiphany!

Everything was still possible again! A bit of the paint used on the music sheets was still available, we could also salvage some of the previous creations. Wallpaper became panel, became collage, I was buzzing and got to work and everybody with me. We have now three canvases on the wall and two drying between kitchen table and fridge and counting as so many ideas are flying for others. I have started upcycling old canvases, we are back to our cutting nights, it is really a great after dinner activity, gentle conversation about our days in this world and creating a parallel world of our own….

#1 and #2 call from Uni. They never call for news, but they call asking for progress and plot twist in the story telling.

#3 decided we took a dive under the sea two days ago and wedding cakes are coral reeves now, star Christmas cookies sea star and leeks and salad onions algae.

#4 is sprinkling the precious touch of her bubbly imagination around, it feels like I am collecting the remains of a soon to be extinct species as she will be officially a teenager in a few weeks. It went so quick with her siblings that I ‘m consciously taking those moments in, grateful for the opportunity, capturing a bit of each of them in her.

The house has finally become our house, another house of colours in our life. Our family has learned that once again we made it together through another phase of our lives, that all adventures are worth living. Kids have learned the meaning of family culture with their hands this time. They have learned that you can build a lot from ashes with nothing, that you always can get a second chance, and also a third, a fourth chance at life. And counting.

It can just start with a cut actually.

Be it papers or past.

.

diy
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About the Creator

Lau Costantini

Born Shamanista,Forever Islander, Daydreamer by trade, Constant learner, Bohemian by choice, Dancer to the core,

Storyteller by fate.

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