Empty Market as The Daily Bread

Every time we are hungry or want something, we walk to the kitchen open the fridges door and there it is. If we can’t find what we are looking for, then we just dial seven numbers and in less than an hour whatever we want is brought to our front doors. We are not used to not finding things at the store or not being able to eat or have the things we want.

Starting this new graphic novel called “Marzi a memoir”, which tells the story of a young polish girl living during the times of communism in her country, I’ve come to realize how we don’t appreciate the small things we are able to consume every day, and just because we have never missed them we take them for granted. Marzi the main character starts her story talking about a carp; a “special” fish they get to eat once a year. She doesn’t really like the carp, it makes the whole bathtub stink, but considering it is a special occasion and that she will only be able to eat this once a year; Marzi eats the carp as if it was the best thing ever. Then she talks about her families rush to get sugar one day. In the morning the news that sugar has arrived to the local market shocks every one in the house. They rush to the market to the market, wait on an hour-long line just to get two kilograms of sugar. The same two kilograms I walk to the corner and get in two minutes.

As I’ve read into the book, more and more examples of the decay of communism appear, and every time I reflect on how little we appreciate what we have until we no longer are able to get it, and there is where we come to realize how much we needed it. I’m not sure if Marzi realizes that not being able to find what you want at the store is something that normally doesn’t happen, or just finding one product at a time. She was born during the peak of communism in Poland, and has lived all her life running to the market every time something new arrives to town.

People in a society like ours usually take for granted the little things that life is giving us, since they have never had to live with out them they don’t understand their value and that maybe other people would be grateful to have even a little of the stuff we have. From this book I’ve not only reflected on a political and historical matter, but also on how ungrateful we are some time, even though we get every thing we want.