SHELTER

SHELTER

     I am looking out of the window at my boys chopping wood in front of the house. At least, that is what they are supposed to do! Dular is chasing the goat across the yard and Amur, his elder brother, who should be more mature, is rolling in the grass, laughing at his younger sibling's antics.

     Two ordinary boys. One - 10, another - 12 years old. I never noticed anything different about them, except, may be, unusual kindness and an ability to elicit the same response from anyone: human or animal alike. 

     Yes, I read it in the diaries: Joon and Anita continued their work long after they came to Siberia. They enhanced their consciences; that's how they were able to earn sympathy and help of the Evenks. They enhanced their children's consciences. The diaries said, with each generation, the strength to follow ones' principles and getting others to do the same should grow. In fact, by Joon's calculations, my children should be able to trigger that kind of a response by only touching another person!

     Dular caught the goat and the two of them are now running into and bumping each other. The goat ended up rubbing against Dular and bleating ecstatically. Amur is smiling widely at a scene in front of him. 

     Somewhere in the world soldiers expend their lives defending interests of the greedy corporations. There aren't any governments anymore: all the power is concentrated in the hands of the global conglomerates. Decisions to use chemical or nuclear weaponry belong to them, and they don't hesitate to employ any means necessary to achieve desired goals. The only way to survive is to retreat to a hamlet like ours, protected by miles and miles of the impenetrable forest. But sooner or later, the distraction and violent death will come here too. 

     My boys have it in them to stop all that. With a touch. All I need to do is, expose them to the world immeasurably crueler than anything they have ever experienced before. I don't know if I can do it!

To Be Continued... may be!

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SHELTER

SHELTER
   
 

Now at night I spend hours, sifting trough the journals from the trunk. My parents taught me some science and math, but it is not nearly enough to understand, what all the formulas and language in the journals mean, and what it all means for our community and families.
     When I came upon a series of diaries bound together by a rubber band, I thought that my task will get easier. It did. Joon, my great-grandfather, wrote in it every day. The events leading to my progenitors' leaving the U.S. and coming here became clear at last. But what I read in the yellowed pages deprived me of sleep and peace of mind for many years to come.
     Joon and his wife, Anita, were geneticists. Prior to the global warfare, they worked on cloning vegetables and raised their family. As one country after another became involved in a conflict, Joon and Anita had to face some tough choices imposed on them by the military. They were offered an opportunity  to create super-soldiers by using their science. They refused. 
     They lost their jobs, but as they wondered, how they were going to feed their boys, a certain organization contacted them. It seems, their struggle to stay true to their principles didn't go unnoticed. They were given a chance to work in safety for the survival of mankind 
     The war raged on. Many years passed until my ancestors were able to find a solution to the loss of human life. They isolated a gene that was responsible for amplifying human conscience. If enhanced, that gene's influence could lead to all sides stopping the hostilities and resuming peace.

     Joon and Anita were not able to achieve results in their work. They became hunted fugitives from the intelligence services of many countries. Things in the world were also going badly. When a threat of the nuclear war between the United States and Japan became apparent, Joon and Anita put all their efforts in looking for a place of safety for their family.
     That is how they ended up in Siberia. 

To Be Continued...

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SHELTER

     I feel funny not writing anything. Giving you day-to-day news from my place is fine, but I love the feeling of my imagination taking control of my fingers and a tickle of the thrill when I create a story.

SHELTER

     We lived here for ages. The wars in Europe spilled into the rest of the world and raged for years leaving billions dead and the planet devastated. My great-grandparents escaped to this obscure place in Siberia from their own home in the United States. When North America and Japan were obliterated by a nuclear blast, they were already safely ensconced in a small house among the snows and ancient trees of taiga, a primeval forest in the Far East of Russia. 

     Life hasn't been easy here. They had to survive in a merciless environment, relying only on their own resources. Fortunately, they found friends and support in the Evenks, the indigenous people of this land. 
     That was almost seventy years ago. My great-grandparents had two children, two boys, who married Evenk women. We came from a Japanese-European background, and the Asian genes became even more pronounced in the following generations. The families multiplied, and now there is a small village here that lives it's simple, busy everyday life.
     I often asked myself a question: who was that couple that made a heart-wrenching decision to move to this, seemingly, God forsaken part of the world? It couldn't be easy, and they must've made an educated guess, where the war and it's consequences won't reach them. I rummage in the things that are left from them: a lot of papers and science manuals, photographs and knick-knacks from their age and culture, but my efforts to decipher their identities and reasons for coming here were fruitless. That is until a week ago.
     Amur and Dular, my two sons, felt restless and hot, with nothing to do before school would start again in a few weeks. An old underground shelter, not used or visited by anyone since their grandparents' time, was the one place forbidden for them to explore, and they zeroed in on it, like a tiger zeroes in on a grazing deer. 
      I heard Dular's cries, as he ran to the main house. Fortunately for his brother, it was a lunch hour, and many men were at their homes, so it was easy to dig him out of a collapsed hole. Covered with dirt and slobber, my boys didn't remember about their find at first: a metal trunk, hidden for many years in the shelter.

To Be Continued...

Copyright protected.
     
     

BLOOD PRESSURE RISES AGAIN

 

Roberta and Park

      Are you as tired of the whole Park situation? Well, not as much as I am!
      Something is obviously eating at him, so he lashes out at everyone of whom he is not afraid. This morning I went to check Roberta's blood pressure, which I do about an hour after she eats breakfast. Park opened the door and said that she is sleeping. I went away and started doing something else. He came out and declared that we need to discuss some changes that he wants us to make.
- "You need to come at the same time each morning to check BP (blood pressure). Otherwise she falls asleep."
- "OK, are you going to come out every morning at the same time to eat breakfast? Because the time of BP checking depends on how long before it she ate."
- "No, we talked! She needs to do everything according to a schedule!"
- "She is 80 years old. As far as I'm concerned, she can do whatever she wants, whenever she wants!"
- "We are not gonna be like your family! Your family is disorganized!"
- "I don't care, what you think about my family."\
     His color deepened, the voice volume went up and his stubby finger pointed at me vehemently:
- "You will see! We'll move!"
- "I don't mind."
- "She is my wife, not yours!"
     After telling me that, I think that I am a doctor and know everything, the small man ran away, unable to keep up a conversation where only he was upset.


   I realize that the attempt at organizing me is, actually, an attempt to control me and everything around Park. He even apologizes in order to control the way people respond to him and not out of genuine regrets. 
   Roberta came out ten minutes later and asked, if the dust settled. I replied: "Yes it did. On him!"

   Her next question took me by surprise:
- "How do we get him out of here?"

FIRE: BURN OR CLEANSE? - re-post

     The news from Korea: at a ceremony in commemoration of Rev. Moon's passing away: two women and a man were burnt. One Japanese woman poured paint thinner on herself and a pastor of the Unification church, splashing another woman in the process, and set fire to all of them. My immediate reaction was that, I understood, why she or they (we don't know the extent of the involvement of the two more passive people in that act) did it. While I worked in the Unification church for thirty years and gave a lot of myself and in the financial sense, it's nothing comparing to our Japanese members. They carried most of the financial burden of supporting the movement, it's activities and the Moon family, besides having the incredibly humble and self-sacrificial attitude toward their missions. To come to realize after all that that they might've been taken advantage of can break anyone's spirit and bring them to the brink of insanity.

     I don't know for sure, if the group in Korea did attempt the self-immolation. The official Church version of the event is that one of the Japanese women, a mentally unstable individual, tried to burn the man, but got herself and another woman also splashed by the paint thinner. Will we ever find out the truth? I don't think so. Of course, setting oneself on fire is a pretty crazy way to punish the Moon family. Who, actually, got panished? But at least, maybe now the church members will stop pretending that nothing untoward happened and everything is just as before.

I CHOSE - re-post

 OK, I know, I didn't write for two days. I've been doing something very important. I watched  Seventeen Instances of Spring (it should be Moments, not Instances; I don't know, who translates those things)! Its an old Russian mini-series from the seventies about a high placed Soviet spy in Hitler's command at the very end of the WWII. Its very good, because there are a lot of great historical references and exciting plot twists. One problem was, I have to remember that I am on the American side now, at least when it comes to the communist expansion to the West. One of the most important points in that movie was the negotiations between Himmler's emissary, Karl Wolf, and the U.S. They tried to exclude the Soviet Union from these meetings, even though they were allies, because they were interested in stopping it (Soviet Union) from taking a foothold in Europe. The Russian spy successfully interrupted the negotiations, and the Soviets took a large part of Europe for themselves. 

     I was also often wondering during the movie, what were the German people thinking at that time, at the end of the war? After all the hype of Nazi Germany starting it's bid for the world domination and the excitement of the first victories, now they came to the part when the Karma or history itself bounced back at them. Did they tremble in trepidation of the imminent payback for their monstrous treatment of the fellow humans? Did they just shrug their shoulders at the injustice of fate? What went through their minds, as, for the second time in half a century, they prepared for the starvation and other deprivation to take hold of their country? It took an awful lot of them to put Hitler and the Nazis in power. They did it. They couldn't blame someone else for what was coming. I feel a little akin to them right now.
     You, probably, didn't expect that. Really, what do I, a Jewish woman, have in common with the German people of nineteen forties, the majority of whom followed and cheered the Nazis? Exactly that: the following and cheering. Of course, I am not totally sure that I am right in thinking that the Unification Church used me and thousands more it's members for the enrichment and an ego-trip of a few individuals. I could be mistaken and weak in my faith. Or not. But, the point is, I can't help but ask a question: "Why did I chose to follow, when I already had my doubts?" How do I reconcile my and my family's future and the past? 
                                                         
     

EASY DAY AND HARD QUESTIONS - re-post

Life is bustling all about me. The birds still chirp, readying themselves for the night's rest. The trees and the bushes are nodding their wise heads in agreement with the wind and the gathering dusk. 
     I had a productive day. A friend came to get some help with editing her profile on a matching site. She and I know each other for at least twenty-something years. Our lives went differently: I married an industrious, capricious Japanese and her lot fell with an avaricious, profiteering African fellow. She had a son and left her husband to live alone for a couple of decades now. I stuck to the, mostly, unhappy marriage. What for? The ideas behind our union were noble, and I would've not questioned them, but for the litmus-paper-time. It tries to prove to me beyond the reasonable doubt that all of my pursuits were in vain. It tries, but I'm too stupid to listen. Can it be that the high motivations always lead us to Hell? Could I be mistaken in taking the un-trodden by most people road and trying to make something out of all the heartache and sacrifice? 
     Where is God in all this? I am not questioning Him, but, maybe, I should. Maybe, I don't invite Him to the table with enough sincerity. I need Him to step in and resolve the nagging doubts in my heart. Perhaps, He thinks that He gave me enough ammunition to decide for myself? Then my decisions, whatever they might be, can not be questioned by Him.