February 2023
The new year doesn’t seem to be very new any more. It also seems quite sameish, in that there is familiar hardship, poverty, hunger,persecution and war anywhere one cares to look, really. Very depressing. Human nature does not seem to learn much, or to want to change. Witness Holocaust Memorial Day, for example. Despite the historical record and constant focus on the horrors, synagogues are still being attacked. One wonders whether God regrets all the effort He put into the project of Creation.
Aphrodite, my youngest grandchild, has turned two. She seemed to catch on to the whole idea of birthdays quite quickly, and proved adept at the whole candle-blowing routine. I always give the children books, but I see some things, even harmless ones, do not change, as a teaset was among her presents. Her older sister enjoys playing with it, too. Their brother turns ten at the end of this month, which is hard to believe. Children are one of the very good things about this world. Trouble is, they grow up too fast.
I visited Athens recently, after a gap of several months. It is as chaotic a place as ever, but my friends seem to be attached to it. I enjoy seeing them all, but am always glad to return to the Peloponnese. But this time I travelled on to Warsaw, where my second son and his family are currently living. I am still here for a few days, and am enjoying myself, while being ruefully aware of my deep ignorance of all things Eastern European. That ignorance included the cold. Of course I knew about it, but there is nothing like experience for a real education. Today I went walking in a blizzard. This was my daughter-in-law’s idea; to be fair, the snow was very light when we set off.
The park and the trees looked very picturesque, and I liked the crunching sound as I walked along, but did not enjoy the sensation of snow blowing into my eyes and mouth. So I can cross that experience off my list.
Such a sad country, Poland. As far as I can work out, throughout its long history, it has hardly ever been free. Geography has such an effect on history, and Poland’s place in Europe has guaranteed shifting borders, partitions, and invasions. And all the suffering that goes with those events. In central Warsaw there are many memorials: to leaders, resistance fighters, and ordinary soldiers, who seem to have been extraordinary in their 1939 defence of Warsaw and on many occasions afterwards. Near where my son lives there is a big graveyard, where many of these defenders are buried. A few graves have headstones, but most of the dead are known only to God.
And there is always the haunting presence of the persecuted Jews. The Nazis razed the infamous Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, but the outline of the walls has been made obvious in the pavements, and names of inhabitants are there for all to see.
Warsaw was practically flattened at the end of the war, and it seems a miracle that it has been restored in the shape of an attractive, easily negotiated and safe city with an efficient transport system and many green spaces. My grandsons attend international schools that offer all sorts of advantages: the study of a good range of European languages, for example. They are also able to indulge their athletics passion, and seem to have adjusted to the climate rather more easily than their parents have. Well, they’ve got youth on their side.
The miracles of modern technology meant that we could be in Warsaw, and yet be transported with one click to Melbourne. So we were able to watch the Australian Open’s men’s final between Greek Tsitsipas and Serbian Djokovic. Of course we were with Tsitsipas all the way, but our wishes did not prevail. Still, there’s another person with youth still on his side.
Gillian occasionally writes for
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