EU celebration learns to be Poli(sh)tically correct

Once upon a time, the story goes, that a red dragon was taken down in the land of Europe. In the same time a child was born…20 years later we are invited to celebrate.

During the celebration though, somebody from Poland raise the hand [and typed a question on EUTube channel] asking:
“Where is Lech Walesa?”
Well, this is “a story of child born in Berlin” was the answer. “Actually its about the child that was born on November 9th 1989. [If you cared to see the entire video clip.]“
Somebody else asked:
“And why was the child born on November 9th 1989 instead of June 4th 1989?”

At this moment in time, the host, EUTube, commented that the celebration is just what it is: a 20th Anniversary of democratic change in Central and Eastern Europe and is “about the child being born at the moment the Berlin Wall was brought down.”
[pause]
And…”Where is Walesa, Solidarity, 4th june elections? “
[pause]
There was some time for thinking, changing statements and after two weeks we are invited to a new celebration. The Polish typing now on EUTube about SOLIDARNOŚĆ are also invited…

What a party!
We thank the host.

We leave wondering if the somebody that asked politely “excuse me, where is Bulgaria???”  during the first 20th celebration  will also be invited in a near future for a special party like this. After all, the red dragon had many heads and many warriors fought him.

If you listen carefully, in nights when the wind blows from the East, you can still hear stories about the old dragon. Some say he still has some heads left, some say it’s only his ghost but many talk about him wandering in the land of Europe.

Twitter Revolution in Moldova

This is one of my takes on it.

Visiting Romania

After one and a half year away I am back in Romania for a short visit.  I have the feeling that things changed in better but I also learned that I am lacking  language/skills that would alow me to fully communicate with people around here…Even people that live and work in Romania seem to have the same problem but for me it feels even more strange because I am able to better communicate with people from my US community (that come from all over the world) then people back home…This feels more powerful in my profession where even though I want to put what I know to a good use I cannot do it because I don’t speak the same language with most of the professionals.

Hopefully my struggle to know how to love will help me learn all the languages I need in order to do the work.

One hand washes the other

If I were to use this title, in Romanian, about my relation with some other person the implication would be that we are helping each other get a clean image even though we are doing some kind of dirty business. Until yesterday it never occur to me that this can be a positive expression about help, forgiveness, community.

Due to some unfortunate events I ended up having a heavy burden that I was supposed to carry with me for a number of years. Because it was partially my fault I accepted it. At the beginning I was confident I will be able to pull it along however I soon realized that month after month the burden seemed heavier. One evening I had a thought that I should confess to somebody about it. I knew a member of our church community works with more or less similar problems so on Sunday I just asked if I can talk with her. She listened and understood my physical and psychological burden from my few sentences. More than that she promised to look into my case and see if there is any way she can help.

The next day when I talked with her on the phone and she told me she was able to waive my dept, I literary felt like my burden was taken away from me, like I had this dirt on me and it got washed off. It felt somehow similar to the feeling you have after confession and communion in church but different in the same time. It surprised me and reminded  me about the meekness we should have to see God’s mystery and grace coming so powerful from a regular person. I felt like a hand that just got cleaned and can now clean another hand.

One hand washed the other and both the face goes the saying. Through this experience I learned though that one hand washes the other and both can and should wash the feet of the persons we meet everyday in our life.