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Monday, November 01, 2010

in the midst of war we find an oasis it created

An excerpt from the chapter VESPERS in the (incomplete & unpublished) sequel to ZO:

“We are something special here,” Zhanna Yeva added one evening while I stood among the communicants, but did not partake. “The Germans and Ukrainians are at peace with one another in this place. Our Soviet prisoners, whether Russian or from some other part of the USSR, are fed and clothed and given medical treatment. We do not work them to death. They worship with us, embrace the God of Love just as the rest of us do. We have Jews here, do we not? Sometimes Roma pass through or remain among trees for weeks at a time only a few hundred metres from the village. Catholics rub shoulders with Orthodox, Orthodox pray alongside Uniate, Jew blesses Lutheran and Lutheran kisses Jew. High church take the cup and bread of Christ with low church. Or no church. Even those who believe this world is nothing more than our hands and our minds and the grass beneath our feet have a home in Mir. You do not have to be anything to live amongst us. Only kind. And for those who believe there is something more than what our fingers touch and our eyes take in, we only ask you to choose to see God everywhere and among everyone – even our enemies. Such a choice does not mean we permit our enemy to destroy who and what we love. Yet it must stem our blood from hatreds and cruelties even in the murk of shellfire and machine gun bullets.”

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