Moscow War Museum

"This was built to remember WWII,” he told me.  Barett’s friends had picked us up at the apartment, taken us for pancake breakfast and would later take us for lunch.  With their son we were walking through the beautiful fountained plaza before the monument to the victory of the Russians over the Germans when Hitler invaded Russia.
“You’ve not been invaded in America. Here there’s been a war every 50 years of so.”  he said, realistically.  It’s a fact of life in other parts of the world not protected by Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Another monument we’d seen earlier, celebrated the Russian Victory over France when Napoleon invaded Russia. This very intelligent young gentleman with a wry sense of humour and passable English, would tell us that he worked in the production of military uniforms.  “I”m just a businessman.” he said.
I told him, through Barrett’s translation, the plot of William Gibson’s book in which there is “industrial espionage” surrounding a new military fabric that not only is excellent camouflage but also attractive so that itassisted recruitment. Whoever had the fabric could get the richest contracts considering how many men and women were in the military.  Despite translation everyone laughed especially as I’d synchronistically only told Barrett about the book hours before meeting them.  He told us that their fabrics had to wholly Russian made that he wasn’t in design but production. And it really was a production making sure all the parts of the uniforms came together and everything was wholly local.
I told him the story of the English having their Tank Opticals made in Germany when WWI broke out and what trouble that caused.  “That happens a lot,’ he said. “All the uniform must be made in Russia.”
We walked through the museum together. I appreciated how he told his son about the reality of the wars. There were school tours going on and I thought how busy this museum was compared to the Canadian War Museum.  “Lest we forget,” came to mind.  It was clear how much he honoured the soldiers.  The museum showed in terrible detail the worst battles the Russians fought in. Barrett and his wife, her friend, followed and talked of mutual friends and changes in Russian. Barrett asked him to explain the details of one campaign.  I told them how my father had been in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Dad took my brother and I often to the Canadian War Museum  to remind us of the cost of peace and the sacrifice the military makes. We all enjoy the peace and prosperity but rarely think of the real politics.
I told Barrett later how living in London years back I’d heard often how the Brits were irritated by the American Hollywood portrayal of the war being all about them. Indeed the brits thought the Americans  were ‘johnny come late lies’ to the European front. Mostly they were in it for the money, the Brits having to pay in land and pounds for their initial support.  The Pacific in contrast was the American war despite the cost to the Australians.   I’d just read an account of WWII by a non aligned historian who pointed out the greatest theatre of the war and the one that truly broke the Nazi had been the Russian. The cost in lives to the Russians was overwhelming. It explains even to today to some degree the concerns that the Russians have about security.  Even Freud said, ‘sometimes the paranoids are right’.
Later we’d have lunch in a fine Ukranian Restaurant. It was a magnificent meal and the Ukranians were delightful hosts.  Naturally Russians were partisan to their cause.  Barrett had learned from other friends that the Crimea was formerly Russian.  It was Russian from 1783 till 1954. Barrett asked our host about that and he said, “Yes, we gave it to Ukraine. A lot of Russians were always against that. ”  That explained to some extent the Russians now Crimea. It seemed a bit like  marriage and divorce. Nobody is ever happy but we make the best of a bad lot.   The Quebec Separatists have never been too happy with what Ottawa thinks they can ‘take’ if  they want to leave Federation.
I’ve got Russian and Ukranian friends in Canada.  They’re the best of Canadians.  I further appreciate the west’s position is against Russia. But it’s all above my pay grade. As far as I could see both the Russians and the Ukranians wanted peace as much as the next one.  In Russia there’s no evidence of hostility I could see. Whenever we heard of the dispute the tone of voice was always that of ’sadness’.    No one we spoke with was against Putin except a Chetyn moslem who didn’t like the Russian military at all.  He seemed to like Russians just fine, indeed he preferred the Soviet Union to the new cosmopolitan and orthodox Russia.  Naturally I couldn’t say.   What  I certainly saw was that Russians were happiest when they were with their children or when they were eating out at restaurants.  My favourite hockey has always been when Russians played Canadians.
Ironically, itt was National Jewish Day in Russia.  I couldn’t help but think walking through their War Museum,  seeing the extraordinary lists  of people killed, the widespread damage to the country and city, that to Russians, WWII is as close to them as Auschwitz is to Jews.  Every family had lost someone close.  In Canada, despite Afghanistan, I like, the vast majority of Canadians, have no experience of war, famine,  chaos or the clean up.  The Ukranians and Russians and indeed Europeans in general have a proximity to the insanity that we in North America have thankfully be protected from
Thanks to Barrett I had the  pleasure of the company of this generous friendly and humorous Russian family. A really informative and very  pleasant day.  Barett and her friend laughed a great deal. Her husband dolted on her and their child. Not understanding most of what was said I was just thankful to be included.  Everyone was talking a mile a minute in Russian. Then they’d sot, .share a phrase in English with me then  and off they’d go,  talking of cottages, dances, friends and families. Barrett talked of Alaska and Hawaii.  I know t because both Alaska and Hawaii were said in English.
I enjoyed the sculpture of King George slaying the dragon.  It was incredible in the museum to see the soldiers and tanks in the pictures of the Red Square I’d just seen lovers kissing in.

John Rauls and Academic Fame

My friend is a philosopher who lectures college students.  She gave me a copy of John Rauls decades back. I duly read it, mostly because she is extremely beautiful and worried she'd quizz me about it at sometime in the future.  When I'm not reading about neurochemistry and Higgin's particles I'm more often than not reading theology.  I liked that Rauls said to paraphrase, justice is to social institutions what truth is to the individual.'  I've always liked the 'as above, so below' connection between macrocosm and microcosom. I just didn't realize that John Rauls, Theory of Social Justice would become so important. It was written in the 70's and I read it in the 90's and today I learned it's one of the most cited of social philosophers.
I've had this experience with individuals before. I read Harvard's, George Vaillant's book on the Grant Study, wrote to him a very appreciative letter in the 70's long before I knew he was one of the 'grand men' of our age.  I was just delighted that he corresponded with me and later I had the opportunity to meet him, a truly wise and remarkable man, a few years ago.  I read Thomas Kuhn's, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' a few years after it was published in the early 60's .  Today paradigm is a garden variety word thanks mostly to his book.  I read Turing early in my interest in computer programming when I was writing in Basic and MS Dos long before I cursed program language realizing I could speak swahili, punjabi, mandarin and spanish if I had devoted my attention to learning living rather than techno language. I still enjoy learning spanish but will likely die before I ever  learn swahili. There is simply not enough time for learning all one wants to and so much interference in the study of what really matters.  
Recently I read Jared Diamond's first books and happened to share the tastes of the world as that great genius has also gone on to acclaim he deserves.
When I travelled I used to carry a copy of the Bible and I also had a copy of Plato. I enjoyed in my 20's  reading the discussions  of Socrates.  Over the years I'd routinely read three texts, one about some aspect of sociocultural world, from the  arts , a scientific text, which might be from any aspect of science, medicine or psychiatry, and finally a novel which commonly discussed matters of importance in the other fields.  I've loved the writings of physician writers like Michael Creighton and recently Daniel Kalla.
I loved Love in the Ruins and the Joshua Tree.  I've loved those books that spoke to our times and culture, like Robertson Davies trilogy.  Obviously reading Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain was an insight into asylums, tuberculosis and the human spirit just as that other nobel prize winner Magister Ludi caused consideration of meaning as much as Victor Frankl's writing does.  Recently I was reading an economics text, a physics text and an evangelical theology text side by side getting relief from them by reading the antics of Flashman by Macdonald as he boisterously raced through the hot spots of history.  Most of the ideas of science fiction a hundred years ago and even only 50 have come to pass.  I laughed because several of my patients were called insane for thinking exactly the same way as  characters out of a William Gibson's novel.  I thought meeting these exotic creatures some of my colleagues should get out more.  Not at all insane by global standards but definitely beyond the mindset of Georgia and Howe.  
An old friend, the father of my dear friend, before he died told us how he'd supported himself in the latter years. He'd had very little or modest returns from all the best stocks and investments. However he chose to invest in an obscure company because he thought what they were up to was rather brilliant. This man was a scientist in chemistry himself but chose to buy stock in this obscure little start up.  "It was called IBM. It's provided more returns than all the other blue stocking stocks put together and allowed us to live as we did after retirement." he told his son.
I feel like I've invested well intellectually.  There's a kind of 'social justice' in that.  It's the truth.  John Rauls was a good read even if my brilliant and beautiful friend never asked me about it later.  But today as his name has achieved an even greater popularity I am thankful to her too for recognising gold in the dross.