A question for you and a request for help
I don’t believe in complaining but I do believe in asking for help, and when I ask for help, I always include my gratitude to you and my trust in your good will.
The world has been turbulent, life is not easy for anyone, it is not easy for many of us, and I know it is not easy for me. Which is to say, I trust that if you are in the position to help, you will, and I only want your help if you can. And if you are already supporting me or have supported me in the past, I thank you for your kindness, and you make a difference in my life.
And God, I really don’t believe in complaining. I would rather be a shiny Tessa who never needs anything but … I am just going to say that I’ve been through a lot, and I am coming out of it because I fought for myself and my loved ones very hard but “a lot” took a lot of my resources, and right now, my hope is on you.
At the same time, if you are a free subscriber and want to be comped to join our Friday calls but you can’t afford a free subscription now, please just reach out, and I’ll do it for you.
I am really doing all this work for you. For some reason, life has walked me through many unusually dramatic turns, and they opened my eyes to the things I would not have otherwise known or even thought about. So I try to share my knowledge and insights, and my heart sings when I get emails saying that I was able to help.
It is my path in this lifetime to bring awareness to the things that are not yet in the spotlight, and this path comes with joys and frustrations because it feels good to be useful but we also live in a sea of Pavlonian media tricks, and I absolutely refuse to use my writing to generate fear. I don’t like this approach, I object to it with every cell of my body, and so I vote against this approach with my typing fingers, but then my wallet pays the price :-) and I am still figuring out how to balance it out.
Speaking of…
What is it that you want to read more about, from me? When I asked in the past, you told me that it would be interesting to read about my Soviet upbringing and historical parallels, which I plan to do.
What else? Please let me know.
I usually write about whatever I think about on the inside, which often precedes the news cycle as opposed to follows it. :-) But I know that sometimes, you may want to hear my commentary on the actual news cycle, and if so, please let me know.
Today or in the next few days, I am going to publish an interview with a brave mother who believes that her daughter was profiled and murdered for organs inside an American hospital, before any COVID. It’s a striking story. I am doing it for spiritual reasons, I think that we live in a world where courage, grounded prayer, and standing up for each other protect us all. I am doing it because I find it unacceptable for a grieving mother to fight a fight like this without massive support from people with platforms, and because there is lots of bullying going around but bullies are only as mighty as we let them be. It’s a choice. Fear is a potent mind poison and an illusion at the same time. I’ve divorced my fear and forgot my way to where it lives.
And for inspiration (since I don’t feel super comfortable doing fundraising emails), here is a picture of my grandfather. I have written about him, he was a very brave man, he worked through a loss of his father early on, through the war, through building up his life after the war, he was a gentle soul, and I love him, I miss him. I miss him a lot.
I pray that all our suffering gets transmuted into sweet joy. And I think you for being you.
I will keep you in my thoughts for the difficulties you are experiencing.
I have never been particularly interested in the Soviet Union except to read Pravda (their propaganda was so much more interesting than the US propaganda) outside their embassy in Iran, and to visit the border where the Soviet side of the border was so unbelievably beautiful I never wanted to leave. But I've read some history to put current events into perspective (inoculating me against idiotic American propaganda and dishonesty) and I actively seek out information on the Russia perspective at this point. I have had some Russian friends here, though there's a point at which they refused to talk to me about politics (regarding the Russia/Israeli mafia link in Bush Jr. times). That was when the Russians and Ukrainian students here were really losing it with each other--around 2014.
But now I'm reading Russians, listening to them, glad Putin is in power (quite honestly) because he's so sensible and level-headed (unlike several dozen American leaders I could name), and they also know way more than I do about the Soviet military (like Andrei Martyanov) and particularly Dmitry Orlov who writes SPECIFICALLY about what the fall of the Soviet economy and political system was like and what Americans need to do to be prepared for it, and how to survive it. That's not fear porn. That's giving people the kind of information that is super useful and that will also calm down their neurological system, which is good and needed.
I want to know how the fall of the Soviet system affected you, your parents, your grandparents, your school, your neighborhood. How did people eat during the worst of it? How was it different there then than it is here now--like how did you get your housing and how did your government protect you from homelessness which would have been so much more serious there than here? What did people find most useful to sell to get by? What happened to your savings? Your money? How did you deal with loss of utilities? What happened to the food supply?
Really practical information is what is needed.
That's what I really want to hear from you. You're a normal person. I like some American and international economists, but normal, ordinary, bread and onions type people have so much practical knowledge--way more than you know. That's what I really want from you.
Also, how did you keep your spirits up? Especially regarding the arts. What kind of social networks helped the most? Which human relationships kept you going best?
Did you have a dog? A cat? What happened to your books?
What are your perceptions of what really happened? Why did the economic system fall apart? (Beyond Reagan.) How did Russia manage to rebuild it the way it has? It's quite remarkable how successful they have been, especially given the fact that they don't have a huge population.