The Beggar's diary 07-07-2007. Scroll down for media (interview with the guardian of the Flower)
Today, the number 7 is all around us. Filch heard a that lot of people are getting married today because of the special date: 07.07.2007, or 7-7-7 (as in the New York Times!). A holy number, 7. But Filch is known as 06.
"Who's Filch? Who am I?" he wonders. He sees people hugging, being in love, enjoying themselves with their friends, walking in groups through the city—the rainy summer at its best. He feels lonely and lost. As if he had never been there before, as if he was just waking up. As if just reborn. As if he had lost all his memories and had to learn everything again from scratch.
He has been told to be at the Spiekerhof between 12:00 and 14:00, so that he can be found there from now on. Because of the generosity of the café owner he drinks his free coffee at 11:00 at the FYAL café.
(editor's note: please see
http://beta.thebeggarsopera.org/node/68).
He meticulously calculates his precise location at the Spiekerhof—right next to the shop window with the plastic mannequins, as he was told—but yet no one notices him. Will somebody recognize him if he just stands there with the number 06? No. Nobody seems to look for him. There are no tourists inspecting their maps and pointing while wondering, "WHERE’S THE BEGGAR?" He looks around, and even an old parked car, a Ford GT, has more spectators. He sees a group of musician beggars, looking like one big family, and he is jealous. How great it must be not to be alone.
Now who is Filch? What do people say about him? Who is he there for? He decides to go to see the other sculptures in order to learn from them. At the "Blume von Münster", by Marko Lehanka, he finds a woman from the SPM07 organization sitting next to the sculpture. She is the sculpture's guard. As far as he knows, he has no guard.
He decides to follow a guided tour to try to clarify his position. He had been following the tour for about an hour when the group passed by a beggar, and the guide, stopping about 100 meters further on (a safe distance, thinks Filch), explained that the beggar over there might very well be “The Beggar”, by Dora Garcia. She just doesn’t know, because she hasn't seen him yet, but she has been told she cannot try to find him, but must just hope to be found by him. "Now,” thinks Filch, “that is certainly a lot of mystification… that man, who is a real man, could not possibly be me". Just as he is thinking that he hears a woman saying that there are actually three Filch(es): because it is so hard to be The Beggar all the time, three people take turns being him. Now Filch is really confused. “Three people? So that man could be Filch after all”. The woman continues: "The Beggar is always telling people stories, and he speaks three languages". Well, Filch knows a lot more about himself now.
The tour goes on, and one of the ladies turns to Filch and asks him how long he’s planning to stay in the city. “Till the end of September,” he says. "I am Filch, The Beggar", he confides to the woman, in a whisper.
The woman shrieks with excitement: "Oh, please, oh please, can I tell the others?" "Not yet" says Filch, mysteriously. He is just not very sure of himself yet.
But just then the guide asks him, casually: "So, you came to Muenster especially to see the Sculpture Exhibition?". "All right", –he thinks- "I'll have to confess one day".
"Dear, I am Filch, The Beggar. It is true I speak three languages: English, French, and Flemish".
He laughs.
The group laughs.
They applaud.
The guide says in a very admiring tone that they are VERY lucky to have seen The Beggar. Because it is very, very difficult to see The Beggar: only a few make it. It is a privilege. It is a privilege to see The Beggar.
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