The last sentence

When you part from each other what stays? You meet somebody for lunch, coffee, G&T (everybody on 60pages seems so obsessed with, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, and here, and here, here in a way, here, here, and here, and here). What stays? A feeling? Maybe the last sentence? For sure, it’s rarely the very last sentence that stays. But maybe one that rounds everything up? It can be very banal. Even the very last sentence attributed to Goethe before he died was not the famous “mehr Licht”, but supposedly “Frauenzimmerchen, gib mir dein Pfötchen!” to his daughter-in-law. With one friend the last sentence is always “let’s just fucking do this and that”. We usually stand somewhere on the streets with our bikes. One of us says it, and the other one laughs. And then we usually just fucking do this and that (and sometimes we don’t). But it’s always a positive separation. With other friends it’s more a Nina Ruge like “Alles wird gut” separation, reassuring each other that, well, everything’s gonna be good. (Do you remember Nina Ruge? What is she doing now? To my great shock Nina Ruge stopped saying “Alles wird gut” after 9/11 for some time). With other ones it’s a circus of strange associations. Sometimes it’s banality, just kisses (three in Switzerland to the confusion of the whole world), maybe a look, a deep understanding (a misunderstanding), a relief, a sadness. Sometimes the best ideas pop up while parting from each other. The one almost gone, the other still making suggestions. I know people who wait with the most important thing to the very end, when you basically are already gone (already boarded the train, already passed the security check, already left).

“Gib mir dein Pfötchen, Nina Ruge.”