Love in a Time of War.

[Pornhubby]

I have a number of Slavic girlfriends. Russian and Ukrainian. And I have to confess, my Russian fetish is slowly turning into a Ukrainian one. And it pisses the shit out of me that Putin is getting in my pants and causing problems with my sexual freedom. But when the Russian girls start spouting off Russian propaganda about Putin being a “liberator of the Ukrainian people”, it just throws ice water on my balls. That is all. I had to get that off my chest. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

[Hilda]

I have a number of Slavic girlfriends. Russian and Ukrainian. And I have to confess, my Russian fetish is slowly turning into a Ukrainian one.

If I were a psychic consultant (which I'm not, at least not recently) I'd venture a guess that you spent at least one past life in Eastern Europe. Perhaps your spirit is leading you back. 

[HistBuff]

This really makes me sad. I studied Russian at one point and I know a fellow translator who is married to a Russian wife; they also live in Quebec City. Back when I first knew him, in 2012, it didn't matter; it was even before 2014. Now, there are tensions between his family in Canada and her family in Russia.

[Pornhubby]

I have a number of Slavic girlfriends. Russian and Ukrainian. And I have to confess, my Russian fetish is slowly turning into a Ukrainian one.

If I were a psychic consultant (which I'm not, at least not recently) I'd venture a guess that you spent at least one past life in Eastern Europe. Perhaps your spirit is leading you back. 

Very astute observation.

I am a descendant of Rurik of Novgorod. One of Russia’s principle founders (and the grandson of Ragnar Lodbrok). I am an Eastern Orthodox, and most of my romantic partners have been Slavs. I speak a little Russian and Ukrainian. I know the food, cultures, and customs (today is the day of Love and Family Loyalty denoted with chamomile blooms).  So yes, I have spent several past lives in that region of the world. It is my legacy.

My icon corner in the eastern part of my house ( facing Jerusalem).

[Clitical Thinking]

Nice collection. I'm not a practicing anything - Methodist father, Catholic mother, but probably best described as agnostic myself - but I've always found Orthodox iconography very beautiful and interesting.

[Pornhubby]

The amazing thing about icons, is that they are done by monks trained in iconography. They mix all of the pigments by hand, egg tempera on natural mineral pigments. And each stroke of the brush is accompanied by a prayer. I don’t know the exact reason, but these traditional icons seem to emanate a spiritual energy. And there have been many wars, famines, and pestilence turned back by their spiritual power, when they are removed from the church and marched through the city. That is the tradition, and I’m just happy to have them. I always stop for a moment and venerate before heading up to bed.

[Hilda]

This really makes me sad. I studied Russian at one point and I know a fellow translator who is married to a Russian wife; they also live in Quebec City.

So many points of congruence. When I was in my teens I lived a few houses down from a technical translator of Russian. This was back in the days of the Cold War, so he was very busy and making heaps of money. "If you want to become a technical translator," he told me, "first get a degree in science or engineering, then learn the source language." That's the opposite of the advice most technical translators will give you. First you master the source language, then you pick up as many technical dictionaries or glossaries as you can find.

[Hilda]

The amazing thing about icons, is that they are done by monks trained in iconography. They mix all of the pigments by hand, egg tempera on natural mineral pigments. And each stroke of the brush is accompanied by a prayer. I don’t know the exact reason, but these traditional icons seem to emanate a spiritual energy.

There's a similar tradition regarding the copying of Buddhist scriptures. Even though there's no longer any need to copy them by hand, folks continue to do so, one character at a time, while keeping the mind one-pointed.

Come to think of it, isn't there a similarity with Jewish mezusahs? I've read that those little doorway scrolls have to be written by trained calligraphers, using traditional materials.

[Clitical Thinking]

Speaking of tensions, I read an article a few weeks ago about how the Eastern European community in New York City (I think the place is Brighton Beach) was feeling about the invasion of Ukraine. What was interesting was that the tension was not only between Russians and Ukrainians, but even between older and younger Ukrainians.

Supposedly, some of the older Ukrainians, that lived in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union, feel that a lot of death and destruction could be avoided if Ukraine simply gave up and let Russia annex it. One of them said something like, 'Who cares if the passport says Ukraine or Russia? At the end, life goes on just the same, so why fight back?'

On the other hand, the younger Ukrainians that came over in more recent years are very much in favor of Ukrainian independence, and they aren't happy about the attitude of some of the older Ukrainians towards the conflict. I wonder if the older Ukrainians still living in Ukraine feel the same way about the invasion? It's probably easier to feel like Ukraine should surrender when you don't live in it anymore.

Another reason that older and younger Ukrainians living in the US are drifting further apart is because the older generations still speak Russian, whereas the younger ones speak Ukrainian but not Russian, meaning the younger generations have a difficult time 'connecting' with some of the older, Russian-speaking ones.