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What's Up Abraham?

10/5/2015

4 Comments

 
Picture of Abraham, Venice Beach, 2010.
Abraham, Venice Beach, 2010. © Carrie Speaking
Do you remember me? We met in Venice.
I had been up and down the West Coast, driving our Chevy from Los Angeles to St. Helens, Washington. Sitting in the ashes of the volcano, I wondered: “What now?”. And, sheepishly, I drove back to LA. 

We had been surprised to like it. Everybody had told us to love SF (and we did) but to despise LA. Like a little sister who’d never win a beauty prize. The one you’d indulge to visit but who would be, as she may, a disappointment.

Did you drive up the coast too? Or did you drive from some other place all the way to Venice, sat, and wondered: “What now?”.

What’s up Abraham? You look exhausted. 

I like Venice. The beach. The peculiar houses. The casualness. The colors. The attitudes and the freak shows. And everything attached to it. The frappuccinos in West Hollywood. The takeaways of UCLA. And the tacos. What about us getting tacos and hanging out tonight?

Do you like Venice? Did you get to live in one of those peculiar houses? What’s your favorite coffee place in LA? 

What’s up Abraham? You are shaking. 

It was much colder in Oregon. Did you get to see Eugene? I studied there. Did you notice how Eugene feels out of place sometimes? There is something artificial to it, but honest artificial. Tacky, but heartfelt tacky. Like it is what it really wishes it were, not what it should appear to be. Eugene stripped me of my artificiality and, somehow, ate it. 

I think people pour themselves into Eugene and come out of it lighter, while the town, somehow, wears everything they poured (all of it, at the same time). I don’t mean it in a bad way: in the end they are, both people and town, revealed.
What’s up Abraham? Your hands are swollen.

Do you remember me? Probably not. We met in Venice. I liked your eyes. The landscape in it: you seemed far away. You seemed to be travelling, browsing people’s faces. I never forgot about you. Probably because of that picture I took of you, five years ago. Earlier this week, I looked at that picture, hanging on my living room’s wall. I thought: I want to invent the life you had. 

You asked me for ten bucks. There was no way I could just take your picture for free, you said. I liked the way you said it: you were thereby declaring your humanity. The fact that you were not just a good shot. A peculiarity of Venice. A member of the freak show. I felt suddenly very small. Something insignificant in the landscape of your eyes. I saw myself in them: a faraway speck. 

Sheepishly, I took that shot of you, in front of your peculiar van. You took my hand. Your hand was shaking and swollen. I tried to press it very hard. To tell you in advance that you’d be with me the next year, from Vancouver, BC, to Watson Lake, Yukon. To Norway. To Japan and to Iceland. All the way until right now in this café in Paris, visiting friends, next door to the Louvre, where of all things and people possible, Da Vinci, the Venus de Milo, Delacroix and the Italian Renaissance, I am thinking about you. I’m hoping you’re ok. I’m sad I can’t find the words to tell your story. The one that, obviously, never happened. 

I wanted to give you that. But I can’t. I think it’s fucked up.

Please take good care of yourself Abraham. At least I know your name.
C.I.D

Thanks to the writing contest "Letter To A Stranger" in Human Parts on Medium, Abraham was notified of this article and honored it with his comment below. I felt blessed. Thank you Abraham! Read my response here.

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4 Comments
Abraham
1/9/2015 13:00:41

Carrie,

Thank you for thinking of me. I am grateful that I was able to make an impression and imprint my picture on you mind. Life is amazing. I am blessed to create music and art on Venice Beach, a place where Free Speech is still free. We are in a time where each of us need to carry love and light into our hearts and to reflect that to the world in everything we do. It is time to raise the vibration of love and give the children a more peaceful and creative place to live every where. Peace and Love Abraham

Please come and visit again on the corner of Ocean Front Walk and the world famous Dudley Ave.

Reply
Carrie Speaking link
2/9/2015 01:38:17

Dear Abraham,
I was stunned and honored to discover your comment and Shelly's share of my article on your Facebook wall!
I am very happy right now, and fascinated to discover more about you and your art.
Yes, I thought you were stunning when I saw you in Venice five years ago, and yes, that photograph of you does hang on my living room's wall. I love it.
When I wrote that article about you, or rather the you I couldn't get to know, I had been wanting to write it for a long time.
I am feeling blessed right now: reaching people, making contact, sharing a part of their world, was the exact reason why I started writing. About people, and about Travel mainly. Many thanks to Shelly, and thank you Abraham. Whenever I come back to LA, I will come and discover more about your art and these amazing people around you. I may even take a photograph ;)

Reply
Eleu Navarro
2/9/2015 10:38:00

What a beautiful letter

Reply
Carrie Speaking link
2/9/2015 10:56:06

Thank you Eleu! It was heartfelt. I am happy it makes people feel something, anything :)

Reply



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