Love & Life In An Igloo

I caught half of a documentary about the daily life of the Eskimos. This is actually an offensive denomination, meaning 'raw meat eaters'. They called themselves Inuit, which simply means 'people'.

Each time I see in films, or read about them on the news, or hear about them in whatever context, one thought always immediately comes to mind that, why oh why they should live in the Arctic, the most inhabitable zone of the planet, within the limited space of an Igloo. I can understand how they got there, running from warriors in the villages, driven by necessity and violence. But staying? Living in the land of nothing but lethal cold with permanent and infinite ice?

But then I thought, while I could practically feel the freezing wind on the screen, we often persevere under abject conditions or circumstances, not of our own choosing but we stay put too, without making an effort to change the situation. Metaphorically speaking, like a couple staying together not exactly for love, but for convenience, convention, economic or family ties. Perhaps the very long, slow, complex and difficult construction of a couple's life and home is much the same as the Inuit, consisting in making a life and home where there's nothing.

Or worse. There is something. Hurricanes and colossal storms in the polar circuit, divergent interests and fierce rows in couples. Like the Inuit, people know and remember why they had sought love, for necessity of affection, for fear of loneliness, for genetic urgency, for the human need of a mate and a home. But then you need to stay there, to maintain the relationship, the home, the commitments and obligations. Sure you don't have to put up with things you definitely hate, but you do have to put up with something, sometimes.

Maybe that's why there are so many separations and divorces, because tenacity weakens at some points. The perseverance in couples is a mystery. You take too long to reason, to think, to decide. Then you find that years have passed by, and angers muffled, tentative plans shelved, and one day you look around and discover that you and your partner have created a space, modest but warm and familiar, a refuge for two, a protective igloo in the sea of ice.

Tags:Igloo,Eskimos,Inuit

Current Mood: Contemplative