The castles

It was just supposed to be dinner to meet Ellie's counselor. But dinner was sandwiches at the club headquarters for the Mataro castell group on a practice night! We had heard about this, but then we got to see them practice, and at the end we were wound into supportive sashes and invited to join in.

Though we were on the outside and probably adding very little, they wanted us to feel part of what they had described: the feeling of becoming part of something larger doing something amazing as an expression of culture and community. Everyone braces on and for everyone else, heads down, mostly not even able to see what we are creating.

 If you are part of the tower, you have your arms entwined, facing each other, bracing your body, shaking with the effort. If you are part of the base, you have your arms up lying along the arms of the person in front, belly against back, forehead resting on shoulder blades, or at the very back hand pressing onto shoulders like a volleyball set posture. 

You are looking down, and maybe a foot comes down onto your shoulder or toes dig for purchase in the folds of the sash as the climbers-- adult men, then women, then teens and finally the little kids wearing helmets-- clamber up or slide down. You are part of the human structure, your humanity simultaneously subsumed and foregrounded. It is taxing, dangerous, bizarre and incredibly beautiful.