Feeling defensive

yeah, sure : I feel it too
that feeling of being defensive.
We all feel it, that we have to justify our game plan to friends, family, we have to hide or share our status as we see fit, honor our principles and work things to our best advantage, or not : as we see fit!

What is the (ZOLOTI VOROTA Metro  ) escalator status of today ? It was clearly defense. Every face had some version of defense, self defense, group defense, defending the moment of their reality, pensive defensiveness.

#greydesign
Using this Metro, it really is a time warp. What Ukraine deserves tremendous credit for is the maintenance of their Soviet era transport systems, smartly designed, well engineered, perhaps an entirely new version of environmentally correct designation should emerge like GREY DESIGN. Grey Design, it would equal something like "what we did for all these years really was a super efficient, environmentally correct strategy, proven true in the long view"

People might be like "no, it's not possible to coin a new < environmental> term that invokes praise of the Soviet style and be politically correct. It's just wrong." But many Westerners forget, or are unaware that there was an extra seat in the United Nations for the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. And I probably don't have the details right, but they were like tandem elements in a (then) unified strategy. But now it's dark days, they probably won't be allied in any sense for generations, I hope it won't be that way indefinitely, but that's not my call to make.

 Aren't we all trying to make the world safer and better for the children ? I think it's the goal.

Maybe I am wrong, but perhaps they hit the last nail in the coffin in the new cold war?
The problem is that this favoring  of American Pop Culture is way too overt, and it must be aggravating for the Russians. Recently,  there was an antique car show in Kiev, and the Big tourist bus was blaring a full deck of overplayed American hit songs by the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry  Rock around the Clock and so forth, it just didn't feel right to me, to have that going out on the site of all this social struggle where the Maidan was.
 Plus there is so much great contemporary Music coming from Ukraine and FSU. >  why not play it?
No surprise the Russians extended their long range bomber routes to Gulf of Mexico .

It's not about Doctor Love Strange ?
Hugh Laurie choking up about Professor Long Hair's greatest work? At least that's cool !

Anyway, I searched a song title "defense" and arrived at this:'

and if you haven't got the news, the Punk sound is back in Town ~

"The Defense" (by Bad Religion)

Nothing comes easier than madness in the world today
Mass paranoia is a mode not a melody
Yeah I'd like to watch all thousand cable channels but there's nothing on
And my high speed connection's monitored daily by the pentagon
These things are seldom what they seem
I'm not inclined to enjoy my dreams
won't go away

No Peace and No Friends
We Trace the mortal edge with no defense
To State the obvious
This world is perilous for us
No sense and No Guide
ain't it beautiful to be alive Yeah right
I won't resign before the struggle ends
So I'll construct this sound defense

We are the prey and culture is the predator
I'm running out of time where conditions are position nal
Shadows of a doubt cast reluctance and depravity
There's got to be a way to overcome this grim reality
Is there an option left for me
I'm not immune to despondency
There's no way

No Peace and No Friends
We Trace the mortal edge with no defense
To State the obvious
This world is perilous for us
No sense and No Guide
ain't it beautiful to be alive Yeah right
I won't resign before the struggle ends
So I'll construct this sound defense

There's a signpost on the corner
and it keeps everybody safe
We were all made in the shade
And your mother's in the kitchen
where she's patching all the cracks in the wall
We never had to care in the world

Too much to sacrifice
it's hard to recognize
Just a compromise of purely deadly alibi (s)
It's combination )al (
the pressure so intense
So I'll construct this sound defense

Nothing's plainer than the madness in the world today
I must conceal myself and steal myself and break away
I seek initiatives in matters that are black and white
So I'll construct this sound defense
***********
I was not familiar with this group, they sound pretty good. Their lyrics are honest, intense.
Now I want to hear them Live and in person. BRING IT ON !
yet in reflection about this mood I noticed today,

I went on a brisk and more than tidy run in the afternoon, up, and across Sofia Square, finding the most efficient use of green pedestrian lights (when I am running if a car is going into the cross walk, I prefer to maneuver behind it, as they are not accustomed to runners here and they probably won't see you in time)  And past the intercontinental Hotel , then racing on down Andriivsky descent. It's not an easy place to run, all the mortar missing from the jumble of stones : it's an ankle twister , once in the chute, I stay to the stones in the center, where they are flat and easy to calculate general foot placement. I'm fond of hitting a hurdle on the bottom, the plastic road blockers are just the right size to do it and they are error friendly in the sense they'd topple if you didn't clear it. Plus it looks cool : they aren't used to hurdlers here either.  I actually raced a Mercedes SUV going down the descent)

SO I looped around the Kontractova Metro stop area (which is near Ukraine's Olympic Headquarters) but I didn't go past that today, I was looking for this underground artist colony which I visited one night with friends, but didn't spot where that was, then caught the Metro back to the center, rather than run all the way back to it.

On the Metro, I was able to redefine the sensation I had of people being defensive. In the sense that people are being more than defensive of themselves, they are defending the rationality of the current situation in Ukraine as a whole. For us it might be incredible, unbelievable what is going on here with the war in the East, for them it is as well. Yet everyone rationalizes their situation, reality. Defends the sensibility of the moment. People find  a way to build a good mood and enjoy life here, as do I. I had done this exercise run with the song "Dancing in The Moonlight " in my head. It was released as the Title song by the band King Harvester in 1973, their one hit wonder, it never really made the charts too big, but has been covered by Toploader / I caught their warm and fun video the other day.

and it fits the pace I run at, I don't need ear buds to hold such a catchy song in my head . Even though I was just a kid then , I often feel like the mood in Ukraine's cities reminds me of early 1970's California, just with the advent of Mobile technology now, it's a little different) That was also a time when the status of a socially difficult war weighed on our social consciousness, yet it was countered by a culture based on the mood of Peace and Love, alternative living.