Mom is keeping asking me what is allowed and what is not allowed. She asked about me going/not going to the office since last week, about my volunteering, and pretty much about everything I am doing.
Somehow it is hard for me to explain to her that even if something is not prohibited, it does not mean you should do it. I tried to cite what the governor said: if you do not have to do that – do NOT do that.
The same thing often happens when I talk to people from Russia. Quite often, it’s a question: are you allowed to do this and that?
And it is hard for these people to process my answer: it is not forbidden, but you should use your best judgment.
I meant to write about it for a while. It is such a small thing that each time I would stop and decide against writing about it… Now I did, and I am still not sure how to explain why such behavior bothers me. It’s simply that you can govern people through each and single step; they should be able to make their own decisions. If they do not understand why specific behavior is the right one, you can’t expect them to adopt such behavior. Just saying
My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996.
I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future.
I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life.
As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.
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Hettie's Reflections 