Stairs: What do they mean to you? What do they mean to Mr. Trudeau?

She does not know about you, but Bambi loves benches and stairs a lot. Her birth city, Beirut has many famous stairs. During her last two trips back home, in 2019 and lately in 2022, her sister Rania took her to a lovely neighbourhood. In 2019, it was still filled with life despite the start of the financial crisis. In 2022, it was partly still filled with destruction and surely with sad memories of the Beirut blast of August 4, 2020. So many people lost their lives there. You can still feel it in the air or in the eyes of local people, despite their courage and resilience.

However, despite the sad memories mentioned above, there is still the beauty of the preserved or re-built historic architecture. According to Bambi, a significant part of the charm of Beirut is precisely due to its staircases. One is known as “The staircase of Arts” [“Daraj el Fan“] because of an annual artistic festival which takes place there. You can see those stairs in the following picture to the left side.

Mind you, when Bambi took this picture, she tripped as she was walking backward to get the most optimal shot while still being jet lagged. Luckily at the last second she managed to not hit her head on the sidewalk’s pole [Rania, do you still recall this moment : )?]. The second staircase exists in a nearby neighbourhood, which was also very heavily damaged by the surrealistic Beirut port blast. Luckily, it survived (or was it fixed?). Again, Bambi took this picture when she was with Rania and their cousin Laila. Precious memories to keep in their respective minds forever!

Since this past summer, ideas of posts on either benches or stairs have been in the back of Bambi’s mind. For her, benches represent a pause to self-reflect, to rest, or to read. It can also represent a romantic moment or a friendly time with loved ones. As for the stairs, they just make Bambi dream of running them up and reaching her destination whatever it is. They also make her hope/pray not to trip when running them down!

Seriously now, when Bambi saw those stairs in Beirut she wondered if her parents took them to meet each other when they were young and in love; of course, they are older/wiser now… so is their still inspiring love. She should ask them her question one of these days. For now, she just knows that she did ran the first staircase herself under the sounds of heavy shelling at least twice in her teen years during civil war.

Anyhow, stairs may represent so many things to so many of us. Taking the stairs up to meet someone or down to escape something :). Perhaps worrying about ability to take the stairs if we are injured or disabled. Perhaps being confused at a particular moment of one’s life: not sure if we want to go up or down… or where precisely? The top may be love or success or whatever we wish it to be. The bottom could be a more comfortable place or… hell, it depends. Who knows? Unless, you imagine hell (if it exists) to be higher in space. Whatever :)! We may also be intimidated by all the steps needed to complete a project or to survive a journey.

Regardless of all the above, if she may, Bambi will would like to take the opportunity here to cite: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who once said: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase“.

Following this piece of wisdom, you may perhaps wonder now: What is the link of staircases with Mr. Justin Trudeau? Well, while preparing this post, Bambi discovered that our Prime Minister loves stairs too. You can see his own reason further below if you take the time to watch to the video, especially toward its end. This video comes after a few songs featuring stairs that Bambi chose to share with you today.

Well, here are a few words about those staircase-related songs. The first is a famous French-Canadian song by the most talented Mr. Paul Piché entitled L‘Escalier. Its lyrics are deep (you may wish to read the English translation). Bambi likes the part on children:

“After all, children, they are not so bad,
They may hurt or misbehave sometimes,
They may spit, lie, steal:
In essence, they do what we teach them. “

“The Staircase (lyrics taken from: https://bit.ly/3RD9Bew)

“Just before I was about to close the door, I thought I forgot something,
So I reached into my pocket to try and find what was missing,
But it wasn’t my guitar, or medicine
To relieve some pain, or to pass the time.

At the staircase, I went down the steps slowly,
For without any reason I would go up again,
For without any reason I kept going on.
I was confused because something inside of me was missing,
I felt lonely like a river abandoned by children.

And then time was passing, and taking me on the way
Without stopping, without forgetting, without forgetting to drain me.
Not long ago, I was small; now I’m still young, but big enough
To see that we grow old, even in love, even in spring.

So as you can see, I find myself in a strange position,
Pouches under my eyes and with a belly, but beer won’t be the solution.
I would like, however, this song, as it is about my life
To be played one evening at my house, a nice melody on the accordion.

After all, children, they are not so bad,
They may hurt or misbehave sometimes,
They may spit, lie, steal:
In essence, they do what we teach them.

But to end this song in a positive way, I should say what I would have said,
If I did not suddenly change my mind;
Of course, I was going to tell you to escape, how to be independent,
Distanced from the ones you love, to save the world from its problems,

To tell you there is no reason to cry, that the other song I was going to write was wrong,
That love could prevent me from giving my time to those who need it,
To tell you that heroes are not free, they are never wrong, they are unencumbered,
That glory pays for the sacrifices, and power relieves the torments.

Of course, you would have cried along with lyrics,
But in a way it is love, when the ones you love deny your attitude
I shrugged them off, they did not care, I turned my back, they did not move,
I scared myself, I confused myself, then when I understood, I returned.
When I understood, I took a huge detour
To end up alone in a staircase.

It is nothing new here, when I say we’re nothing without love.
To help the world, we must be able to be loved.
Without love, we are nothing“.

The second English song is “So Long, Farewell” from one of Bambi’s favourite movies, “The Sound of Music“, which she has watched more times than her age :)!

The third Arabic song is by Fairuz and it is about the staircase of roses or “Daraj el Ward“, which is a new discovery for Bambi.

The fourth and last song is simply for fun. It is for kids, in English, and entitled “The Stairs to Anywhere“.

Before ending with Mr. Justin Trudeau unique staircase-related TV moment at 2:27 minutes from the start of the following video until its end, Bambi will pause to say the following: Thank God because Mr. Trudeau did not have a brain concussion while doing his TV trick (he only hurt his wrist a little bit).

This being said, if you are curious now, you may watch Mr. Trudeau pretending to fall the staircase; a trick he learned from his dad, as he said in French. Bravo for his acting talent that can entertain TV watchers, hotel guests, and his wife, as he reported.

Well, who knows? After watching the video, you may perhaps think: Oh, how clever and lovely too. You may also think: Even if he is highly skilled in fake stairs falls, Mr. Trudeau is not as talented in his role as Canada’s leader :). You may even have both contradictory thoughts at the same time, of course with all due respect for him/his position. Regardless of your thoughts about your personal meaning of stairs or about our Prime Minister’s political performance, Bambi hopes you will enjoy the staircase-related songs as well as Mr. Trudeau’s impressive talent with stairs!