Everybody's talking. Nobody's listening. Paul the vocalist listened..

photo: Paweł Spiewak and author, 06.2014

Everybody's talking. Nobody's listening. Paul the vocalist listened and listened attentively erstwhile we deserved it. He listened, read and thought. How a actual teacher required this of himself above all, but besides of others

When he liked individual he was patient (to time), but besides as a man of blood and bone showed himself erstwhile individual spoke with nothing to say – either he kept quiet or changed the subject of conversation, frequently with a grin or irritation he maliciously commented or interrupted, sometimes violently, especially megalomaniac and vain talking. He did not like this very much, which does not mean that he was only curious in things considered crucial and demanding in-depth studies. Oh, no! He liked to perceive and talk about details of life, details, details of everyday life. I remember our walks, which included talking about passing passersby, their faces, their clothes, their gestures. He treated life and people seriously and complementaryly, in the fullest sense of the word.

Man is the main subject and mention point of His early and unexpectedly interrupted work and thought. Man in the face of political systems, social structures, religion, past and politics. Man with his spirituality and the possible of thought flowing from the past of ideas and the tragedy of their denials. I will not describe the work of His life (discourses, books and many publications), I will leave it to better analysts and reviewers than I do. His interests of the researcher, author and publicist are very wide. As in life, he did not avoid current comments on things that live a day or 2 but always, clearly or little clearly, he was curious in the universal dimension. I would only advise that it is worth waiting for Paul's not yet published book about King David (composed in the Literary Publishing House) and share the deficiency of cognition whether he finished or not a book about his father, John the Singer, which he has worked on in fresh years and to which he has put large importance.

I met Paul during Solidarity Day (1980/81) at the University of Warsaw. He was a young academic in the department of sociology, we, students of Polish Studies, “boys from the NZS” who issued an information bulletin, the Center for Academic Information (CIA) of the NZS University, later, during the strike (November ’81) of Warsaw University. In the state of war, as shortly as the gates of the University were reopened, we ran the Discuss Club 02 (from the number of rooms in the underworld of Polish Studies), where in a tiny group of students and students (about 10-15 people) from different universities and faculties we met regularly with older than us by respective years or more Irk Krzemiński, Jerzy Wocial, Jack Salij and, of course, Paweł Spierek. There were discussions, seminar trips together, but besides parties and activities in sub-groups in the underground, which we did not tell each another about due to the conspiracy. This relationship and relationship matured and survived years, in many cases until now. Biographies have started teething, and we've crossed our way to freedom together and face it to this day.

We started in the '80s with the Discuss Club, conversation, and friendship, and it stayed that way. In fresh years (2020-23), with pleasance and satisfaction among 15-20 people, we have co-organised the regular meetings of the Forum of the Long Table under the working title “About Anti-Semitism” – a place where, looking into each other's eyes, in direct contact, you can exchange opinions, ask for answers. Paul loved and appreciated our 2 - week - old meetings. Recently, he has not been conducting frequent classes at the University, and he most likely lacked an open conversation that could always bring something important, interesting or even new. He carefully prepared for them (he gave any excellent essays alternatively than lectures, the last 1 with John Grosfeld “Forgive in the position of Judaism and Christianity”), but first of all he listened attentively, due to the fact that it was the most precious of what others thought and felt – as he told me erstwhile we established the order of the next meetings. In the last 2 March meetings, Paul no longer attended. He was in the hospital, but he asked for an accurate account and we were discussing the next... The next (14.04) will be devoted to the memory of Paul. We asked Irk Krzemiński to gather his thoughts and begin. We all, I think, request this very much.

Everybody's talking. Nobody's listening. Paweł Spiewak listened and listened attentively... It is very uncommon and so highly valuable. I am one, most likely of many, due to the fact that Paul liked people and companionship, he was not a loner type, on the contrary, his grateful beneficiaries. This is especially crucial to me, for Paul’s attention and focus helped me very much erstwhile I truly needed it. erstwhile I got out of prison (2006-07), sad and very tired, I met Paul in an unrighteous way to thank him for the assurance he gave me erstwhile I was arrested. I asked for guarantees from behind bars through my friend and counsellor Grzegorz Kucharski 3 people who knew me very well not only publically but, above all, privately: Fr.Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, Tomek Wołk, an old friend and neighbour and Paul, a friend from the University from a very close environment, then besides an MP. Formally, the guarantees for nothing were ignored by the territory Attorney's Office of Ziebra (2006), due to the fact that the full case was showy and propaganda, and the main intent was to show me in handcuffs and detention (for the Law and Justice Office it was and it was "political gold") but, of course, for me and my immediate willingness to aid me, were important, very important.

We went for a walk to the Saski Garden. Though the garden was small, we walked long, since lunch and ended after dusk. It was fall. They locked me up in July. I got out of jail a year later in late October. After the first rounds, we came to eat something good at an Italian restaurant located within the park and went for a walk again. We talked all the time. Neither of us wanted to say – I gotta go. Paul listened and asked. He was curious about everything; what I thought and thought, what I felt, what I was doing, who I was talking to and what I was talking about in prison and now that I'm gone... as if he wanted to tame me with my traumatic experience and, by the way, learn as much as possible. I remember 1 thing; he wanted to realize me and I needed it most. Years later, we returned to this conversation many times. He remembered her well, and most of all my sadness, which I don't think will always leave me, but the peace and curiosity of the people is, now, years later, fortunately, it does not disturb.

The court acquitted me and all another defendants in the process of the alleged Warsaw Agreement from the allegations made after a 10 year trial (2014) and finally, validly in 2016 . For most, my “obviously wrong” arrest, imprisonment for more than a year and the good name of many forever or how convenient it is to them, that is, “only” 1 of the many iniquities in not as in our imaginations (idea/freezes) a democratic and law-abiding state. simply – angry and tiny people in power, but for me and my loved ones it was a sudden, forced change of life, a setback, depression and a border situation. Paul, thank you again.

In its final text published in ‘Politics’ [Politics 14.2023 (3408) of 28.03.2023; The View and View; p. 70 – ed.] 2 days before His death and written in the second half of February, Paul returned to our ideas and requirements about Poland and He described a strategy that, contrary to our intentions and actions, distorted and distorted them. in a dramatic and threatening way. The years 2005-07 was a foretaste of this happening now, without limit, openly and shamelessly. If you haven't read this text yet, delight read it... Here is simply a link to it with my introduction, which sketches the circumstances of the uprising and recalls its first title: Paweł Spiewak – Disappointment.

Paul’s publications are besides a form of conversation. It's been 2 weeks since we appeared in "Politics" (28.03.) of this, most likely the most crucial in years of specified insight, which describes and calls the processes determining our political and public life, our "here and now" and in public space – no comments, no polemics, as if it were not there! Everybody's talking. Nobody's listening.

Started more than 40 years ago, an endless conversation with Paul, I am sure, will stay with me forever. Tens of unfinished threads, questions, unanswered answers. There will be memory, fixed images, sentences, written books, and another texts to scope and return to. There are texts, recordings, photos, emails... old and fresh libraries, but Paul is no longer with us. They say there are no irreplaceable people. That's not true. The only comfort is that, as he said himself, he felt truly happy in his last life.

* Oh, my God *

PS. “Everyone says, nobody listens” I borrowed from Anna Dymna, who utilized this phrase in the conversation on the radio (TOK FM, OFF Czarek, 12.04.2013) commenting on the contemporary, omnipotent noise.

photo: Paweł Spiewak and author, 06.2014

Text published on pawelbujalski.blog