Spring offensive

Bohemia
Bohemian lake: Unsplash

On this somber first anniversary of the war in Ukraine and anticipating a spring offensive, I expected to read historical reflections in the media about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet tanks and troops in 1968. So I am filling a gap with a brief memoir.

With two undergraduate friends, I crammed into a mini car to drive from London on a winding route through Warsaw Pact countries for a vacation on the island of Crete. As two biology students and a medic, we stopped in Brno to pay homage to the abbot who pioneered the science of genetics.

Curiosity drew us to a loud disco playing Western pop music in Horni Pena, Bohemia. The local youth gave the rare foreign visitors a huge welcome. They were eager to learn about Western lives they hoped to emulate after recent reforms by the First Secretary of the Communist Party, Alexander Dubcek, gave hope for a more liberal regime.

We heard ominous noises under the bonnet (hood) of our car during our onward journey. Thankfully we manage to limp to a campsite beside a beautiful lake and met a Prague family in a neighboring tent. They acted as our interpreters. They advised us to hitchhike to Vienna to buy a new front wheel bearing. We took the part to an automobile repair shop in the village. Our car fascinated the two mechanics who examined every corner and communicated through hand signs they had never seen front-wheel drive before.

The next morning, they had replaced the bearing, evidently after working all night. Then they refused payment, no matter how hard we tried to force banknotes into their palms. The gentleman from Prague sent us on our way with a farewell I never forgot: “Remember Czechoslovakia!”  

We drove east through Moravia into Slovakia and crossing the border into Hungary we entered a cheerless country. Later on our travels, we heard that Czechoslovakia was invaded the day after we left. Another friend didn’t get out in time.

The people fell under a grim regime that crushed hopes of reform and democracy. They waited more than twenty years to gain lasting freedom.

Parallels between the former state of Czechoslovakia and present-day Ukraine only go so far. Ukrainians enjoyed freedom for longer before a brutal invasion. They have suffered, far, far more from loss of life and property destruction than in the Prague Spring. May their bid to remain free and choose their destiny be confirmed much sooner than the Czechs and Slovaks had to wait.

Cocky Coyotes

Coyotes
Photo: Unsplash (photographer unknown)

Two fully-grown coyotes crossed the road in front of us at 10 AM today before I turned into Jamestown Beach. A patrolman told me he had seen others. The boldness of these sleek canids in shaggy coats the color of dry oak leaves took me by surprise. Their cousins in the mountains are far shier because they are hunted.

Minutes earlier, I disturbed a pair of Red-tailed Hawks feeding on what little remained of a deer carcass in our yard. A kettle of vultures waited patiently nearby.

When a new carcass appears, I assume a road accident victim crawled away to die and attracted scavenging birds to our yard. But coyotes in a pack less than two miles away might have been the primary scavengers or even come here to prey on deer. We are visited by red tooth and claw.

While walking our dogs, Ben and Reg, on the beach, I heard two Great Horned Owls calling to each other in the pinewoods. And the morning’s entertainment finished as a pair of eagles soared acrobatically in the blue sky.

2 + 2 + 2 + 2 wildlife sightings the same morning remind me that Valentine’s Day falls this month.

Tango in the Snow

Photo: Inge Curtis

On Valentine’s Day, I queried an AI bot about the idealistic love that Ancient Greeks called agape and compare it with the romantic notion of love. This is how it replied:

“The main difference between romantic love and agape love is that romantic love is usually based on physical attraction, emotions, and mutual admiration, while agape love is based on selfless giving and unconditional acceptance. Romantic love can change over time, while agape love is unending and unconditional. Romantic love is often focused on two individuals, while agape love is focused on giving to others and showing kindness to all.”

While musing on Valentine’s Day about how big love can be, I applied the adjective cosmic. No, I didn’t mistype it for comic love! Way back in my college days, I read an arresting thought from the cleric-cum-archeologist, Teilhard de Chardin. Can love embrace all nature for all time and pale every other kind of love by comparison? Cosmic love is gobsmacking. When one of my scientific heroes, the immunologist Peter Medawar, ridiculed him as a peddler of mystical nonsense I laid Teilhard’s books aside. Recently, I pulled his books down from the shelf, their pages now brown with age, for fresh reflection.

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