Sunday, July 17, 2011

exploding toasters

Some people unplug the toaster every time they leave the house for fear that the simple appliance will spontaneously explode in their absence. They don't unplug the lamps or the computers or the blender. Just the toaster. I have never heard a news report of a single toaster being the cause of a house fire. It's more likely that electrical wiring to the stove or Christmas candles will do you in.

People can find all sorts of reasons to be afraid of the world, of taking risks, of simple household appliances. I think Blanca de Saulles was one of those people - terrified of going outside her comfort zone. Her father died of TB when she was 3. Her older brother died by falling off a horse. When she married a white American and sailed off to New York with him, she was not being adventurous. She came under the umbrella of John's fearless spirit, perhaps hoping that some of his reckless gleeful courage would rub off on her. She described in one of her jailhouse interviews arriving in New York for the first time, leaning over the railing of the steamship with his strong arm around her, and all the sweet romantic promises he had made. Whenever he went off to conduct business dealings or campaign for Woodrow Wilson's presidential election, she felt lost without him. His friends became her friends. His relatives were her relatives. She was isolated and alone in America. At her murder trial she blamed him for keeping her shut in... but I think she willingly let herself be a princess in a glass box. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz movie, she was in a beautiful exotic new place but all she kept saying was that she wanted to go home. She clicked her heels 3 times and did not go anywhere. So she shot him, and felt immediately relieved of her panic and fear. She endured the trial like a bad dream, and after acquittal went home to Chile with her son - and never left.

I'll bet she unplugged the toaster every time she went out.

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