Well, I'm not really a fan of stewed potatoes. But Stas cooked some here—it was delicious and so authentically Russian. I'm nobody to him yet, but he tried so hard, with such heart. Stas is just hilarious. A fan of everything Russian like I've never seen before. Kirill is too, but I think he's mostly just tagging along with Stas. I met Anchen, Stas's wife, today. She's cool. She's colored, but she seems white. By the way, we Russians are whiter than the local white people. Although, maybe that's just how it seems to me.
Stas told me how he and Kirill went to a sports bar to watch the Zenit vs. Manchester match. They arrived wrapped in Russian flags, shouting, cheering. Just the two of them. The whole crowd there was rooting for Manchester, getting upset. But Stas and Kirill were happy, just the two of them. People there asked them, "What is this Zenit? What kind of team are you rooting for?" Many didn't know Zenit at all. "It's from St. Petersburg, Russia!" the guys answered proudly. They're so funny! They are good guys, Kirill and Stas. How great it is that I meet so many truly good people!
Ira and I were talking about work yesterday evening. "I feel sorry," I said, "for those girls working there." "Don't feel sorry for them. They make so much money there that..." Ira replied.
But I still feel sorry for them. On one hand, of course, one could say (and be close to the truth): every woman has men in her circle who are "a match for her." But what if someone ended up at Mavericks by accident? Ruined her life? Will a woman who has "been" in that sphere be romantic and touchingly feminine afterward? Will she believe that normal men exist? Will she believe in love? Or only that everyone uses everyone else, that money can do, solve, and determine everything? Huh?
I can understand that if, for example, her grandmother is sick and she needs money urgently and has nowhere else to get it. But when it's like this... just to rake in more?! Forgetting about honor and self-respect. That is...
"They are shaming the country!" says Stas. I agree. For many locals, the word "Russian" is associated with Mavericks and the dancers from Russia there (and it doesn't matter what other countries the girls are from). To the locals (well, to us too, actually), they are all Russian. "But a Lithuanian girl, for example, would never do that, wouldn't take such a job," Stas adds, "because she respects herself!"
Bartenders ask me about Russians, joke about them, and praise Russian girls in front of me. They think they're saying something nice. But I feel ashamed. Very ashamed, and I don't see anything to be proud of here! That our girls sell themselves without blinking an eye? That's what I should be proud of? Where can I hide from the shame?!
So it turns out... who creates the image of our country? Drunks guzzling vodka until they pass out, and prostitutes? Why do we need such an image? Throw it in the trash!
Stas says people also praised Russian beauties to him. But he understood what kind of praise it was. Like: "I picked up a Russian girl yesterday, your girls are super!" Stas says to me: "And it's unpleasant for me to hear that! And I answer them: 'Yes! Our girls are beautiful! And yours are ugly!'" They reply: "Then why did you marry a local?" And he says: "Well, she's the exception! You have one beautiful woman in ten, and with us, it's the opposite!"
We laughed heartily at these dialogues of his.
By the way, about Lithuania: Stas says he once met a Lithuanian. At first, he didn't want to talk to him—to Stas. He turned his nose up. But then it was fine, they even became friends. And one day that Lithuanian says to Stas: "Listen, you Russians are actually normal. I thought you were total trash! We are told that all the time."
Do you understand, people? Did you read that carefully? Media, television, radio, and the Internet are the most powerful tools of suggestion. Do you watch a lot of TV, listen to the radio, read articles in newspapers and on the Internet? Do you think all of this is the truth? Do you think suggestion doesn't affect you, that you fully resist it? Do you think so?
I want to add that I have interacted with Lithuanians. When I worked in England, on a farm near Cambridge. We got along fine. I even have a very good friend left—Nida, for whom I feel an overwhelming tenderness in my heart. So, she is also Lithuanian.
It is worth remembering that there are good people everywhere. And there are also very good ones. And there are those who try to cause quarrels, to make people from different countries dislike each other. Let's not give in to this! And, as the solar bards say (I agree with them, support them, and believe): "LET THERE BE GOOD ON EARTH!"
And if political forces of different countries and people in power want to quarrel and divide money, let them do it without us. And we will be friends with everyone. We will make (and are already making right now) the world more beautiful.
October 21, 2008
