The meeting with the Gazeta Wyborcza reporter initially focused on the Czech Republic, the country’s culture and the mentality of the people of former Czechoslovakia. I greatly liked what Mariusz Szczygieł said about the atheism of Czechs. By not believing in God or life after death, people make full and happy use of the time they have been given on Earth. They experience their only life joyfully.
“Poles who believe in God do not have to be happy during their lives; after all, they have a second one,” the author of “Gottland” said warmly and jokingly.
He received loud applause for this statement. I thought that in the stifling PiS atmosphere and at a time when the Temple of Divine Providence is receiving funding, such a voice and such Czechs are as essential to us as oxygen.
Mariusz Szczygieł also added that his Czech friend would be offended if he were called a non-believer, because he very much does believe… Only in the fact that God does not exist. Szczygieł also spoke about another quality we lack: the ability to maintain distance from oneself, which, he claimed, Czechs do not lack. The journalist also talked about managing criticism directed at oneself and the Czechs’ love of pubs and little pubs, where they meet over beer simply to be together.
“Every decent Czech woman goes for a beer with a friend after work,” the writer assured his listeners.
Danuta Maślicka, who resumed her meetings with people with whom it is both pleasant and worthwhile to talk at the invitation of Ewa Lijewska-Małachowska, prepared a wonderful event at CIK Orzeł. I know she was nervous, and it was clear how deeply she was experiencing her appearance, but she did it wholeheartedly and it turned out perfectly. Her conversation with Mariusz Szczygieł was warm, sparkling with humour and very interesting. They began with compliments and láska nebeská (Czech for heavenly love), as well as the ambiguity of the Czech language for Poles. It was Mariusz Szczygieł who said that Czechs were invented to put Poles in a good mood. And how did they end their conversation? I do not know, because Mariusz and Danuta promoted interpersonal contacts, social gatherings and going out for beer so warmly that I left the meeting to enjoy a girls’ night out.
I told the girls about Szczygieł, about the fact that money in Czech is “penis” and that it is good to have a lot of money in life, while instant coffee is “promiscuous coffee,” and you can order “one black promiscuous one” for yourself in a pub. I also repeated Szczygieł’s point that not all Czechs like being associated with the philosophy of the Good Soldier Švejk, which consisted only in surviving, because they have their own heroes too.
For a moment, we talked about the fact that Bogusław Nowak from Piwnica Paryska, who is constantly criticising the BOK-MCC director, had appeared in the CIK Orzeł hall, and that Danuta Maślicka had been his “engine” on the electoral list when he once tried—unsuccessfully—to become our city’s mayor. We also talked about how he probably does not know, though it would be worth mentioning to him, that he entered the event for free, because the cultural centre he dislikes so much paid the journalist’s fee.
We also talked about collapsing and newly formed coalitions, and about the fact that I had not seen at the meeting the true Pole and Catholic Maciej Małkowski, who defends unborn life, hates all perversions and thinks he is leading our city straight to paradise. He did not demonstrate against atheists, which is a shame.
Grażyna Hanaf