Under the lights of thousands of homes, there are hundreds of changes in life, you and I are intertwined in this whirlpool of this story, and we always look forward to meeting people who know each other in this gap of life, they either accompany us to spend their young time, or walk through the twilight years together; in short, because of a special encounter, we open a deeply locked heart garden to each other and unfold a precious friendship.
"Afternoon with Margaret" is based on the encounter of two strangers in the afternoon in the garden, building a bridge called "love", the nearly centenarian Margaret, who brings people warm power with books, and Charlemagne, a middle-aged man with dyslexia but redeemed by words, meets each other by chance in each other's lives, but the heart is closely linked.
"It's not an ordinary encounter."
Charman was a struggling cripple worker, middle-aged but afraid to start a family, not very sociable, but honest and friendly; he liked to count pigeons in nearby parks and named them according to their characteristics.
On this day, he happened to meet a gentle old woman, Margaret, who was still dressed as a lady at the age of 95, and she looked quite learned, wearing glasses and holding a book. Curious about Charlemagne's behavior and taking the initiative to talk, the old man's gentle eyes and kind words infected Charman, so the two chatted and spent a pleasant afternoon.
Charman's daily pastime was a noisy tavern, a mix of fish and dragons, and his close contacts were also low-level workers who could not read a few characters. But even these wine and meat friends did not forget to ridicule his stupidity, and he recalled that he was himself in the classroom because he could not answer questions, and was verbally humiliated by the teacher, and the classmates around him also laughed because of the teacher's "humor and humor", which can still be felt now.
At home, his mother's disregard also made him feel indifferent, and his self, who had always been regarded as a "trouble", seemed to be a mistake from birth. It is such a middle-aged man with low self-esteem, but in the relationship with Margaret gradually feel the goodwill of the world, this warmth comes from the words in the book and the voice of the old man, when a person can begin to listen to his own voice, so as to find his own precious, then he can also be confident enough to be fearless of the wind and rain of the outside world.
Looking back on the past, what remains in our minds is not all good memories, and the depth of memories is always imprinted in the heart with the ups and downs of emotions. A casual taunt blow, perhaps in the days to come, turn into a demon and meet with their own soldiers; sometimes the clear stream has also been cut by rubble, you see it quietly merged into the rivers, lakes and seas, but the memory along the way is not gone, sinking to the bottom of the sea, perhaps after several reincarnations it will bring this story to the land and the world; to face a long-sealed memory, you need to rely on your own strength to overcome this fear.
For so many years, Charman had been obsessed with his mother's indifference, and because he had never received his father's love, he could not even accept starting a family on his own. Given the greatest consolation in the unfriendly surroundings, he was greeted by his girlfriend Annette, a dedicated bus driver who would gently whisper in Charman's ear, "Your presence is my luck." ”
On another bright afternoon, Margaret reads to Charman the scene at the beginning of the novel The Plague: it is unimaginable that a city has neither pigeons nor trees nor gardens, nor can the wings of birds be seen or the rustling of leaves... Charman immediately stated that he did not believe there was such a place. Sensing that Charlemagne was very interested in the book, Margaret decided to lend him the book, but he quickly refused because he had dyslexia, which also went back to the teacher's sarcastic sarcasm about himself, which made Charman afraid to read, and he also lost many opportunities to read.
So Margaret patiently read it to him, which became an unforgettable reading experience for Charman, who, in her words, read is also listening. To Charman, the words in the book are like piles of screws scattered in boxes, messy and unstructured, but simple for people who can read, such as Margaret, who seems to be weak, but has a bookshelf in her head, which is full of books, and she skillfully organizes and applies this knowledge, so she appears erudite.
Margaret is childless, spending money on the nursing home comes from her nephew's family, and when there is a problem with funds, it means that she will leave here. In the face of this situation, she just smiled and calmly said: "Aging, especially for others, is a burden, but the advantage of age is that even the troubles do not last much." Hearing this, Charlemagne felt a little distressed, and in a trance remembered a sentence from Roman Gary's "Promise of Dawn": "We will always go back to our mother's grave and cry like an abandoned dog." He looked at Margaret in front of him and remembered his mother, which was the pain in his heart.
As the book says, from the very beginning, life has made all kinds of unfulfilled promises, and Charman always thinks that his mother never cared about him, and still disdains him, he is like a major failure in his mother's life; and in his eyes, his mother is also a grumpy old lady with mental problems, and the two seem to be able to maintain a hostile relationship, but even so, he does not want others to have any verbal harm to his mother.
When his girlfriend proposes that the two can start a family, Charman feels uneasy, he feels that he is useless, no qualifications to be a father, and Annette comforts him that the most important thing as a parent is actually the love for the child, she is willing to accompany him forever, and hopes that the other party can feel this trust, because both are responsible for the family, the child will grow up happily.
When they meet again in the garden, Margaret gives him a dictionary as a reading tool, but Charlemagne is embarrassed that he can't use it very well. So he went to the nursing home to return it himself, and he explained to the old man that this dictionary made him see his flaws, and reading with Margaret made him feel that there were too many things in the world that he did not understand, and he began to miss the simple happiness when he was ignorant.
But he did not realize that the books he had read with Margaret these days were quietly changing his life, that he had begun to take time to think in his day-to-day labor, that he had a close friend who was willing to understand and listen to him, that the old man still retained a thirst for knowledge in his twilight years, and that this spirit was infecting him and daring him to enter the next journey of his life, to cherish his family, to embrace the rest of his life.
Children will cry bitterly because of the distinctions in the storybook, while adults will sigh at the battlefield or only one sigh of tens of thousands of people dying in the book; the desire for protection when weak, the tenderness when hard, we draw nourishment from ignorance, peel off the shell when heavy, no state can be eternal, we are just reading books to gradually solve the mysteries that are entangled in the heart. There is no such thing as an absolutely perfect work, but it is worth continuing to explore these classics in their lifetime, recognizing that their shortcomings may be the beginning of the reinvention.
Charman noticed the pictures on the wall and found that the old man had been sent by the World Health Organization to the Congo for a medical mission, she was a scientific worker when she was young, her life had been so glorious; the years had given her white hair, but it was like embellishment for her holy soul, she never gave up reading, she never stopped thinking, you could read a child's curiosity from her expression. But now, Margaret, who loves to read, suffers from age-old macular degeneration, her eyesight is declining, and her mobility will be difficult, which means that her life is gradually weakening.
When Charman heard about the old man's condition, he worried about her: How will a person who regards reading as a breath spend the rest of his life blind? At this time, the girlfriend proposed that Charman read the book to the old lady himself. With the help of the librarian, he found an easy-to-read short story, and he began to practice at home for Margaret, fearing reading, and he wanted to give back to the old man's care, and he wanted to take care of this little flower fluttering in the wind.
One night, the late returning Charman found that the lights in his apartment were still on, and when he approached his mother, realizing that her breathing had stopped, he gently closed her eyes and began to "wailing like an abandoned dog." When dealing with his mother's affairs, he found that the apartment he lived in was not rented, but bought by his mother working day and night, and the relics also contained a group photo of his parents and an umbilical cord. With hindsight, he began to sigh that it seemed that he had never cared about his mother, and everything he had done for so many years was for him.
In a trance, Charlemagne suddenly heard the good news of his girlfriend's pregnancy in the car, and he couldn't wait to convey this feeling to Margaret. When she arrived at her original residence, she learned that the old man's nephew's family had taken her away and placed her in another nursing home in another poor condition because of insufficient alimony, and that the old lady had left a dictionary for Charman, believing that Charman would use the tool book and that he would continue to read it.
Charman returned to the garden with the dictionary in his hand, sat on a bench and lovingly called out to the pigeons in the square, and when he called Margaret's name, he thought of the old lady's lovely face and the gentle sound of reading, and his heart seemed to be tugged, so after much deliberation, he decided to get up and go to her. Through her nephew, he found the nursing home where Margaret was currently located, and in the dim light recognized Margaret in the dim light, who was struggling to read with a book in her hand.
Margaret smiled when she saw Charman, and the old man did not expect that the friendship between the two extended from the book to reality, and the friend actually took the initiative to care about her life. And Charlemagne may not have expected that through these days of getting along, Margaret occupies such an important position in his heart, and he wants to see her so strongly, he will take care of Margaret as a family, greet the arrival of new life in the family, and accompany the old man through the last journey of life.
The garden in the movie often reminds people of "Me and the Temple of Earth", in which Shi Tiesheng wrote that he had been shaking his wheelchair to the Temple of Earth Park every day since he was young, and for so many years, he witnessed the change of the four seasons of the Temple of Earth, and also glimpsed the life of the passers-by, and even thought about the road she looked forward to finding after the death of her mother. "In the calm light that fills the garden, it is easier for a person to see time and see his own figure."
In the warm and warm breeze, Charman felt the love from Margaret in the garden, and also realized the meaning of his mother's life in the reading, in the gap of time busy with his livelihood, the garden brought him the warmth of love, curing his inferiority and loneliness in the first half of his life.
The garden of the city seems to have become the closest place for people to nature, and there is still a maternal radiance in the hearts of the complex people, she listens to the pulse of the city, as if guarding the quiet home for her children, leaving them to rest, people bring prosperity to her, but she only hopes that the children can return home safely.
"It's not an ordinary encounter.
There are no other adjectives than love and warmth.
She lives in the name of flowers, in the text,
In the adjectives where the hair is wrapped, in the verb of the warbler flying grass long.
Some people just broke free, but she won with softness,
Penetrates my body, up to my heart.
In the story of love, it is not only love,
Sometimes there is not even a word of I love you, but we still love each other.
It's not an ordinary encounter.
I stumbled upon her on a bench in the square.
She is inconspicuous, like a little white pigeon,
With her delicate feathers.
She lives in words, like me, in ordinary words,
She gave me one book, and then two,
Pages flashed before my eyes.
Don't wither, there's still time, please wait,
It's not time to leave, my little flower,
Share a little more with me, share some of your life, please wait.
Sometimes there is not even a word of I love you, but we still love each other. ”
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