Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

meaningless rituals. That may be one of the reasons why he chose psychology for his profession: He is not fightingreligion but his own ethnic inheritance, and you know how difficult that can be."Without a moment of thought Alexandra agreed. "Sure, this could explain his dislike of churches, priests, and religiousrituals, but it does not solve my puzzle about his dislike of father and…"She interrupted herself hitting her forehead with her flat hand. "Come to think of, it is quite possible that father does notlike Dahl either. Why?""Did you listen to their conversation?""Unfortunately not, it was still hanging in the air when I arrived with the Bredows."Rowing his arms Konrad took up his pacing again. "You see, Lexako, there is an aspect of Georgian sensibility you arenot aware of, and I, for good reasons, have never mentioned to you. It has to do with what the Russians call dusha,‘soul.’ There are people who have a soul and others who don’t have a soul. Irakli has a soul, Dahl, in Irakli’s eyes,doesn’t. Don’t ask your father for an explanation, he cannot verbalize it, nor could most anybody who functions like he:They look at someone and know that the person has no soul, period, end of all rational considerations." He laughed. "Onmy first meeting with father he resolved that I had a soul and received me with open arms. And you decided that I had somuch soul that you had to have part of it!"Alexandra knew, of course, exactly who were her soulmates and who her antagonists, and once she had made thisdistinction, it stuck to the person with many serious consequences. She nodded and looked pensively at Konrad. "Howdo you think this process works?"Konrad stopped before her and faced her, a frown on his brow. "I have thought about how you acquire such knowledgefor many years. It is obviously entirely visual. You look at somebody and know. In fact, words confuse you. You searchfor a picture in your mind that fits the stranger."He scratched his head. "You and father read body language. There are people with the ‘right’ and others with the ‘wrong’body language, or what is worse, no body language at all. Dahl speaks with his head. He has trained his body to remainmute."Konrad touched his lips with his clasped hands and then swept his arm. "I am convinced that this is the reason why Papais unable to trust him: Dahl is a western, intellectual, humanist, a Kopfmensch, who shows no feelings and permitshimself no intuitive spontaneity. He decides between good and evil with his head—a decidedly dangerous person!"Alexandra smiled and said mockingly. "Are you serious in thinking that Kopfmenschen are dangerous? I have tried allthese years to control my emotions with my head."Konrad waved his head. "Yes and no. Kopfmenschen believe they make predictable, rational decisions, which, withouttheir knowledge, may be badly distorted by their suppressed emotions."He laughed briefly. "With you this is an entirely different matter, you are so openly emotional that a little head-control isdesirable for your own good. As long as you are aware that you make decisions emotionally everything is all right. It iswhen you lose your head that you become dangerous to yourself. Your intuitive grasp of good and evil is in excellenthealth, and you know that I rely on you more often than seems justified by my judgment. Your visions may sometimes becrazy, but they are not distorted by inherited traumata as Dahl’s are—a fortunate circumstance you probably owe to yourfather who loves you so consummately."44.Niko and Claudia's Georgian wedding, Tiflis1907Alexandra finally swayed Claudia’s father to consent to the wedding. Nobody took this religious ceremony overlyseriously, she argued, it should be of ethnological interest to Mr. Dahl. The ritual was part of Georgian life, he shouldsimply consider it as a Georgian family celebration.Alexandra’s dream to drive Niko and Claudia to church in the colorfully draped Benz, had been preempted by the priest’sdemand for a low-key wedding. The bridal couple, Claudia bravely clothed in Alexandra’s wedding dress, with a seriousOtto holding the train, rode in the family phaeton. The guests left their hired carriages at a nearby square and walked thefew blocks to the church. By Georgian standards it was a modest wedding.The hurried and perfunctory ministrations of the priest and his helpers, the pair’s breathless run through the sanctumbehind the iconostasis, and the sarcastic comments of the guests, made, in Alexandra’s opinion, an unholy farce of thewedding service. But it helped to make the ceremony less oppressive to the ‘unbelievers’ than little Sophia’s solemn139