Céline T.
Association La Main à l’Oreille – Antenne Provence
Those small objects that you carry with you do not leave you since you were little. They fluctuate with time. Some are with you for weeks, others are more ephemeral. Now, it is a plastic dish, a big one, a small one, a comb, a brush, a piece of a syringe. Hard objects, soft as brushes. Ah, the brushes! You like them more than anything else and you love the caresses with the brushes.
If we do not limit you, you sleep, you wash, you eat, you want to go out with them and if you have nothing in your hands, you will find something along the way. You have to be asked to leave them to eat and to do some activity. They are also the subject of negotiations, if we want you to obey us when the word is not enough.
When we go anywhere, you will hasten to sneak objects, it is a vital necessity, an urgency, a way to appropriate the environment. Often we are forced to take away those objects that can be precious to others, fragile or dangerous. You accept it more or less easily. Moreover, for others, it is often incomprehensible and embarrassing.
We know it is necessary for you, but these objects are sometimes so invasive! It makes us unable to bear them any longer. There are moments when you take several at a time, you want them all. Moreover, as soon as you have them with you, you cannot discover the world; it is as if that satisfies you. This morning I thought they were like extensions of your own body.
There are times when we can laugh with it all. The other day you were full of pineapples, you wanted them all, but they fell every time you wanted to take others. You played us, unintentionally; a little clown show and you seemed to enjoy yourself too. We share with you that moment and help you to carry your precious loot.
These objects sometimes have a practical side like a brush for caresses or a spoon and bowl to pick up sand on the huge beaches of the ocean. You left traces behind you on the sand: footsteps, spoon holes, and a pile of sand thrown with a bowl. I smiled thinking about the passers-by that seeing your tracks would have had trouble understanding who could be the author.
We found a small transparent bag where to put them. On our trips, you have spent long time taking them out, ordering them, exchanging them. Surely, your objects teach us about your emotions, your thoughts, and your relationship with the world and with the other. They fluctuate with your emotions of the moment. They can also prove to be very practical for learning to count. We propose you to keep two, and you start to count all that you have in hand, you place some, hesitate, and negotiate Three?
We still have so much to learn from you … When I look at you with your objects, I look at ourselves too, and I see all those objects that surround us … Our phone, held, watched, touched, carried to the ear, saved, and connected throughout the day. The handbag, more or less full of small things that we want to take with us, the cards, a purse, a cream, papers … Finally, we never go out with nothing.
So what is the point of fighting over a plate, a sink stopper or a feather? We have learned to do with them; we have stopped fighting with those multiple objects. Today, we talk about it, we play with it, and we laugh at it.
Translated by Lorena Hojman Davis
