Where are they today...? Part Two: Has Momo entered menopause on her bare feet?

This year marks another anniversary of a novel with a message and presenting us with a role model in favour of living rather than merely existing: "Momo", the fairy-tale novel by Michael Ende, telling the story of a little girl who fought against the time thieves, the Grey Men from the Timesaving Bank, was published 40 years ago, in 1973.

Author Michael Ende and young Radost Bokel as Momo on the set of the German-Italian movie made from the novel. Ende himself played a small part in the movie at the beginning, being the narrator, sitting in a train compartment, where he encounters Master Hora (played by legendary director John Huston).

So, calculating from there, Momo must be a woman in her mid-fourties now... What has happened to her, since she brought back the stolen time and reminded people, that living isn't about merely existing, following schedules, making money and owning all the latest gadgets?

At first, the adults did not hear or heed the warnings, Momo and her friends gave out...  although they went as public as possible, even to the point of organizing a protest march through town, inviting people to Momo's abode, the old amphitheatre, to hear all about the truth. But, already infiltrated by the Timesaving Bank's all-too convincing calculations, the grown-ups did not listen - they simply hadn't the time (they thought...).

Facing a world, where schedules, money and wealth are still prevalent, what might have happened to the inspirational and special person Momo was? We know, what has happened to Radost Bokel, who played Momo in the movie in 1986, at the age of 11. She appeared in several mediocre TV productions, worked as a model, including erotic photography for the magazines FHM and Maxim and in 2012 even appeared in the German version of „I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!“ which was originally developed by the British TV network ITV1 - a show which is normally the clearest sign of a celebrity no longer being really famous. Other guests of the 2012 season included Brigitte Nielsen (who won) and show magician (and general laughingstock) Vincent Raven, who brought himself to shame by his chauvinist and anti-gay comments.

But let's think what might have become of the enigmatic and inspirational girl called Momo, who taught lots of people about the true value of time, of listening and of living in general... this what she looked like, as presented to us in the novel:

"Aside from being rather odd, Momo's personal appearance might well have shocked anyone who set store by looking clean and tidy. She was so small and thin that, with the best will in the world, no one could have told her age. Her unruly mop of jet-black hair looked as if it had never seen a comb or a pair of scissors. She had very big, beautiful eyes as black as her hair, and feet of almost the same colour, for she nearly always went around barefoot. Although she sometimes wore shoes in the wintertime, the only shoes she had weren't a pair and besides, they were far too big for her. This was because Momo owned nothing apar from what she had found lying around or had been given.

Her ankle-length dress was a mass of patches of different colours, and over it she wore a man's jacket, also far too big for her, with the sleeves turned up at the wrist. Momo had decided against cutting them off becaus she wisely reflected that she was still growing, and goodness only knew if she would eve find another jacket as useful as this one, with all its many pockets."

This might be her at an older age, walking the streets of any given town, still barefoot, as she used to be:

Is she still listening to animals, as well as people...?

What might she have looked like at an older age? I have seen several pictures of happy women on the web, who all possess that dreamy as well as gentle quality she possessed...

I hope that she has found her place in a community, where people know how to live instead of merely existing. Perhaps I have already met her at a Rainbow Gathering, without knowing it was her... or perhaps she is still on the road, on her way to a place, where she can be safe from today's batch of Grey Men.

All the best to her and may her spirit and inspiration live on in all of today's flower children.