Momo and meditative hand washing

I recently read the novel Momo to my children. I was impressed by the depth of this work.

The people in this novel experience what we all do: we try to be faster to save time. In the novel, this happens with the humans' decision to enter into a contract with the gray lords. As soon as the contract comes into force, people lose the profundity of their lives and work as if they are trying to save themselves from something. Although it could be said that it is the fault of the gray lords who convinced the humans, Master Hora tells Momo that the humans choose the gray lords.

The work provides two contrasting examples that highlight our problem, regardless of what economic circumstances we find ourselves in: the eloquent Gigi tourist guide, Momo's friend, who becomes successful and is booked by radio and television. As well as Beppo street sweeper, who sweeps meditatively at the beginning of the book and has to "sweep for his life" after the agreement with the gray gentlemen. Both lose themselves and find themselves in a hell, as Gigi says: "It's a hell too, but at least it's a comfortable one".

As we are all driven and controlled by time, we also find ourselves in such a hell. This thought is disgusting, but it's worth looking at. It provides motivation to go Momo's way. Like Gigi, you make yourself comfortable in hell, but you don't question hell itself, you don't want to leave it behind. Gigi says: "I can't go back, even if I wanted to." Michael Ende puts it in a nutshell: at the end of the book, the gray gentlemen tear each other's cigars away and with them time, and with it life. Something that we all do in hell and can be described as its characteristic: only those who take something away from the other can survive. Be it economically, in food, in breathing air.

In the context of the novel, Momo's path is the solution, accompanied by the Wise Turtle. You could say we all have such a turtle, reminding us of the Nowhere House behind the Dream Roads. Nowhere is not physical though, not physical is outside of time and dream roads suggest that it is a mental work. But how do we get there?

Since, according to Master Hora, people choose the gray lords, we deduce that they can also choose not to. To make this decision, it is helpful to see the situation the gray lords have put us in: the view of hell. This view motivates us to pause, to question, to look the riddle in the eye, to stop and follow our slow turtle from outside of time.

With her help, Momo learns her inner "secret": she is led by her through the "dream streets" to the "nowhere alley" into the "nowhere house", i.e. not physically present, i.e. mentally. Michael Ende gives us the clue that we don't have to search outside, as Gigi, Beppo and Nicolas the restaurant owner try to do, but in a place outside the world, i.e. inside ourselves.

The connection to soap lies in this: small anchors in everyday life, small anchors of remembrance of our shield crutches can help us to become like Momo again and again. I have discovered the moment of washing my hands for this. A moment when thoughts stop. A moment in which I can feel the soap in my hands and go inwards. I find that solid soap is particularly suitable for this, as you can feel its shape in your hands. But it is just as possible with liquid soap. In the same way, any other object can be used for every action in everyday life, just as Beppo gives every sweeping movement a purpose.

Momo comes back into the world and remembers this inner place again and again: she hears the music of the hours of flowers, the melody of her own heart.

We too can remember the melody. The melody coming from outside of time, we are faced with the choice at any given moment to join the gray lords or connect with our heart.