One more New Year’s article from Time Magazine. I agree with pretty much everything it says. People often don’t believe me when I say I do only those things I want to do, but that’s the driver of my life. When I decide that I “need” to do something, it always means that I “want” to do this to achieve something :). I understand that there is a fine line, but that’s how I think about it, and that’s the most important/ I never think that someone or something “makes” me to do certain things – it’s only me who decides.
I asked myself most of the questions which are listed in this article during the quiet time of the past two weeks, and there are some changes I want to make – because I want some things to change:)
It has been a very intense weekend. On Friday night, Anna and John were consuming my Christmas gift for them: a Broadway show, a hotel night, and babysitting. Later on Saturday, we got together with them, my mom and Igor for the last Christmas presents exchange. I postponed my Christmas tree removal until Sunday afternoon so that we could open the presents by the tree.
I told the girls that the tree was coming down so they could take everything that they could find on the tree. To my surprise, when I took down all the ornaments, I found two unnoticed chocolate ornaments, one candy cane, and two gingerbread cookies.
Also, I had a scary moment when I could not find my cucumber on the tree! I mean actual “mine” – the one I brought from Russia, the one I had since as early as I can remember. I took the flashlight and finally found it, along with one more lost ornament – the skates from Ireland.
The last look at my mantel and the cards before taking everything down
I took down everything, all the lights and all the other house decorations. The tree was still so fresh, dripping some resin and smelling the forest and the holidays! I couldn’t be happier with this year’s tree!
I am never sad when I put Christmas decorations away. They’ve been up for a month, and I am ready to say goodbye. The day I remove the decorations and the tree is out feels like the actual start of the New Year!
There were several “New Year – New You” interesting Time Magazine articles that i wanted to mention. This one is especially interesting given the latest announcement of the US Surgeon General about alcohol being more dangerous for people’s health than it was previously believed. I can tell from my experience that nowadays, it is definitely more socially acceptable not to drink alcohol, and pretty much any establishment has a minimal selection of mocktails.
The third documentary of the series is about Soviet and Russian movies. I am leaving only minimal comments here because Russian cinematography is almost unknown in the US, to the best of my knowledge. Even my most frequent movie-going friends had seen very little if any, of the Soviet movies and even less of the Russian ones. And the fact that movies are the most efficient propaganda tool is well-known, so I have nothing essential to add.
This New Year’s Eve, the Metra schedule was less convenient than last year; the fireworks were at least twice shorted, and Mayor Brandon Jonson didn’t give a speech before the countdown. But the weather was better, and there were way more people out!
These are the best presents one can get for Christmas! I have already shown the present I received from my friends living in Ireland – chocolates and an expresso-maker ornament.
Next was a package from my friend from New Zealand: cookies baked by her triplet daughters :), chocolates, and a Christmas pendant:
The second documentary of the ‘Russian Lies” series, this one is focused on Russian Literature. And once again, I can repeat word for word the same things I said in the comments on the first documentary: none of this was ever hidden or not accessible. Ever.
We all studied Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky at school. We all read (or at least were supposed to) the books in which the never-ending war on Caucuses was a centerpiece. And brave Russian officers fighting with violent Chechens were the heroes. And we never ever questioned that assumption. Pushin’s private letters were always available in the “Complete Works.” It fact, many of them were frequently cited during the Russian Literature lessons. There was no secret of how he felt about the expansion of Russian territories from Peter the Great onward.
We knew that Russian literature didn’t exist until the 18th century. The was a Tale of Igor’s Campaign at the end of the 12th century, and then pretty much nothing (with few exceptions) until the beginning of the 18th century. But as I already mentioned, the language of the “Tale” is not Russian; it’s an old Slavic language that later evolved into three separate East Slavic languages. The language of Shakespeare is archaic English, but nevertheless, it’s English, while the language of the Tale is not Russian.
A side note. It’s a stunningly beautiful piece of literature. I was so taken away by it when I first read it (I was not older than ten) that I started to learn it by heart. I read all the scientific comments and learned what each word meant (not what it sounded like). As a result, I hated all “officially recognized” poetic translations because I could spot inaccuracies immediately. I still can recite big chunks of it.
Back to the main topic. We didn’t study any literature except for Russian. The exception was my English school; if I remained there until graduation, I would have two semesters of English literature and two of American literature. However, I moved to a specialized mathematical school. I know that regular schools had a “foreign literature” semester in the 9th or 10th grade, so the students there had at least limited exposure. As for us, we were unlucky to have a very good literature teacher. It’s not a typo; she knew Russian literature very well, and we worshiped her. On Saturday afternoons after school, she read forbidden literature to us (not completely forbidden, but let’s say, not approved, such as Bulgakov, Leonid Andreev, or Akhmatova). We believed every word she said, and she was saying that Russian literature is the greatest (she had never read any foreign literature in its original language) and that there was not enough time in the curriculum for us to learn what she wanted us to learn, so to hell with any foreign literature.
This baggage was very difficult to get rid of; somehow, the modern “progressive” writers didn’t charm me that much; somehow, I was able to detect the imperial mindset more or less right away, but many of my friends didn’t.
OK, enough commenting – please watch the documentary.
Hettie's Reflections 