shifting balances

the mood on the Kiev Metro is ever changing,:  last night, I came in later on the shift 23:00 going across the river, it was alive with conversation, nobody was talking above the din (as we Americans do) all were sharing the buzz of the packed but not stuffed metro cars. the way the tail ends of the cars seem to bounce along, as opposed to the leading edge of the car you are in, it's slightly comical and maybe misleading, as you may be moving up and down more than you think. Early in the day as some people got on and some older gals found their place in the train, when the driver hit his buttons or switches and it lurched into motion, some nice older lady literally grabbed onto my waist belt to maintain her balance, like as if she was yanking my pants down, it was pretty funny, and they were laughing, as I was, it was funny. THe older Metro trains are totally analog, with staged switching of the power and speeds, if you ride in the very front car, you can hear the driver flipping his switches and it's pretty cool to equate the sound wwith the movements of speeding up and slowing down for the stops.

Maybe I lack the fluid advantages of a native person here, yet it’s  certain that Ukraine is a place to follow your heart. It is not the best time here, or the worst. We are on the verge of this modern variant in catapulted transcendence  , of the  social and economic reality. They have paid a big price for their independence from the Soviet style, not just of thinking, but the doing. They want freedom from slogans and adherence to positive actions of change. Over these last few days, I have seen ebullience mixed with rigid adhesion to progressive efficiency, executing the plan seems to be first and foremost.

Last night it was a 4-5 person band playing music electro-acoustic / jamming in the dark at Kontractovna Ploschit (Square) in Kiev, some pretty good band was killing it, doing Deep Purple’s “smoke on the Water “ as their encore over a long performance. And it was really in the dark, the moon behind the trees, you could barely make out a face in the crowd. I took some video anyway on my phone, just due to the fact the ambient sound was so great !

 I was/ had been  at a place called “the Living Room “ Hole in the wall style (near Kontractovna station ) , but cool, listening to a live , full length Carlos Santana Band concert on the sound system, eating what was actually a pretty good salad, with Chicken, sesame seed, cucumber, fresh tomato and lettuce with mandarin oranges and strawberry. There was an International political cartoon art exhibit that leapt off the page of life, met a nice girl, bumped into a couple of friends. Seriously, I think that Ukraine is exploding into alive thinking like no other place. Russia's war on Ukraine has produced a very strong thinking style. Yet another thing I noticed was that I spotted a friend/ friend of a friend from Donetsk on the Metro, he seemed lost in his thoughts, either he did not recognize me, or didn't want to, a young man, not yet 30 looking grey in his hair, dour , from what has to be untold stress, seeing his world torn apart and pretty much destroyed. It's amazing how fast things can change in life, and I felt sorry for him, as much as I have my own small problems, it can't be easy. I know he goes to his home, navigates the checkpoints, really witnesses the reality there.  It's not good, for sure

On the Metro coming home at 11 PM, people were singing Patriotic Hyms, shooting videos on the subway platform of all this, and breaking out into the equivalent of people in America yelling out at the top of their voices in soft choral Unison ....“the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave” It is not just something to experience a revolutionary transformation, but to feel it as alive and fresh and still far from jaded.

Now I never can imagine being in any place in California or the USA with people singing out loud My country tis of thee, sweet land of Liberty" and then the song just staying alive and carrying with the crowd into a subway car. As I see it, Ukraine made a hard choice to do what they had to do to preserve their independence, they have had so many changes in Government and control of their territory over the last 100 years or so, it's not funny anymore.  It's their time now.

It was a struggle for me to get here, I had to risk some business relationships going bad and really push my envelope psychologically and circumstantially, but it's worth it, as I see it, and a lot of work to get done to gain a sense of freedom from burdens in life.