Chairs are quite reliable and dependable for as long as they are there when you need them. They don't complain much but they do squeak a little with age or when the load is heavy . Yes, they do get old too! Worn and shaky, like little old ladies and frail diabetic, hypertensive old men.
Like us, a chair has a face that distinguishes one from the other. Long before the invention of monobloc chairs or plastic chairs, these thrones were handmade from trunks and vines, twigs and branches. They were defined by the signature of their makers- artisans whose preoccupation was balance and proportion, details and features.
Chairs have evolved. Some have "flesh, skin and bones" like the upholstered settee. They have buttons that would convert a sitting couch to a lounging bed. When Paula Capanas and her team were in grade one, their "laughing chair" was a feature in one of my school's science expositions. This particular chair had three settings: low, medium and high. It was one of the greatest improvisations of a chair that I have seen in my entire life! A classmate was behind the setee while a subject sat strapped in it. A low setting when pressed would give a low tickle, medium- an average tickle, and high would be the ultimate tickle! What's the guy doing behind the chair? Hihihihihihihi! Tickling the one strapped in the chair.
Goldilocks loved the bears' chairs! She sat on all three- papa bear's, mama bear's, and baby bear's and unfortunately broke poor baby bear's chair! Some humans have been known to develop such attachment to their chairs that their spirits seem to inhabit their favorite chairs long after they are gone.
Sofa, divan, chaise lounge, couch, davenport, rocking chair, chesterfield, daybed, Paula's chair - O chair, you have tolerated laziness, supported buttocks and spine at work, but you have also provided rest.
Pablo and I share the same thoughts if not fascination with this very ordinary thing:
"Yes,
a chair,
loving the universe,
for the walkabout man, the sure foundation,
the supreme
dignity
of rest!"
- neruda
and I say:
Waiting to be rested upon and worked upon
a sanctuary of four legs
ready to carry any pressure and weight
a chair of sensual delight
and gaseous outpourings!
