It is hard to explain and most of you, until you wander away from the country you were born in, will never realize what it is like in the rest of the world. Hence this is my thinking’s as I sip a cup of coffee…
It was not easy at first. I had many things of freedom-less freedoms ingrained in me. You know those items that we rant about being free, but never realize that we are really not free…
Things like? Well like, just about everything I do and say…
Everyday that I am in Russia, I am reminded of how different the people are. I am reminded how different the mindset is. I am reminded how much freer I am…
Sveta use to look at me really strange and I know now that she felt sorry for me. Yes she felt sorry for me, that I came from a country as repressive, depressive and socially unacceptable. Yes she felt sorry for me and she could not understand why I reacted the way I did to many things…
Things such as walking, trespassing, time frames, foods, stop lights, u-turns, speeding, carrying ID, crossing the street and a hundred other items too numerous to mention. All items that I use to believe I had freedoms in, now I realize that I had only options of the way I perceived that freedom…
It has not been easy on me and now a good example of how I deal with it, is this: When we are driving, I drive as I was taught and drive as lawful as I can. That is the American in me! This type of driving does the job 50% of the time, then I will say to Sveta, “Time to drive like a Russian!” or I say, “That was driving like a Russian!” after I have done something that would get me a ticket in America, in a heartbeat. What I mean is that if we are on a one way street, so what go the wrong way. If we need to turn around, so what do a U-turn and get where you need to go. If we need to park on the sidewalk, so do it and get your shopping done. Etc etc etc etc…
Even today after celebrating my 7th Thanksgiving in Russia, I still have reservations about running red lights and driving against all rules. But I enjoy my new found freedoms and the total lack of anyone caring how I drive…
Yes we have cops, but our cops are really easy to get around and they definitely have a lack of desire to enforce rules and regulations. I think that comes from the fact that they are Russian and hate rules and regulations! I hope that we keep the cops just like they are… 🙂
I could go on and on, things like political correctness, lawsuits (if you stumble on a crack or banana peel) and a million other things, are non existent in Russia and actually most of the real world. Life goes on and does not get ruled by the pettiness of human, court and political issues…
I am free and the thought of ever having to go back into the repressive society that I was blessed to have left is actually bothersome to me. It really is an issue with me that I would have to live once again in America and be constantly under the magnifying glass on everything I do…
Funny and not Ha Ha funny, I have a hundred stories of issues and jail-cell tales from America. I can tell you stories about voter fraud to people being hanged in the highest trees. From when I grew up to now, I have seen a whole bunch and done a whole bunch…
In the last 7 years in Russia, doing what I always did in America and being who I was in America (Other words being just Kyle!), I have never had any issues. My way of life fits perfect in Russia…
I can’t say that about America, I was always being controlled and that never has set well with me…
I will say again and again, “My dad saw this in me and he gave me a special carved stone one day before he died!”
The stone said, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. – Henry David Thoreau.”
This heavy stone in the picture above, has been with me for over 40 years. It is the only personal thing that has survived the ravages of time and life…
Well I really do think that I am freer in Russia and in fact freer everywhere, I have traveled in the world, than I ever was in America! I can’t travel that path that America has laid out for the masses! I am not a follower and I am not a sheep. Hence, I am not and have never been happy with the path that America is taking down the road…
The US government has grown too big, too fast, too fat and too violent for my tastes. The US government has become the worst nightmare that I could imagine and all I could do was to get away from it the best I could. For to stay in America would mean that I would have to, “keep pace with his companions” and that means I am controlled and not free…
So I am glad that you are happy with something controlling every move/thought you make, but that is definably not freedom. Maybe it is comfortable for you, but it is not freedom and freedom is sometimes uncomfortable…
Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…
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