de Marnixstraat

I tried to come back to the street and the feeling of the street in everything I did in the Marnixstraat. My grandparents were living on the Leidsegracht for 60 years, just around the corner from the Marnixstraat, not during the war, my mother was born there and I have lived on the other side of the Marnixstraat for 29 years, near the Haarlemmerpoort and our daughter was born there. Because I spent a lot of time on the Marnixstraat, consciously, I feel more and more at home and at ease. And I do feel the difference between one part of the street and the other. The sky and the earth. The earth is important but you may not forget the sky. The street is ours, with or without a residence permit. Not of the tourists or the money. The tourists are welcome, but they are not what it is all about. I want to touch the street and sit and lie on it as if I were on the beach or in the dunes or on the grass. It is not possible on the road where the cars and scooters and bikes are, but you can on the sidewalks.