Saturday, May 3, 2014
Tempting Fate - And Winning
This project, the Babas of Chernobyl was recently brought to my attention. Women in their 70s and 80s who have been living in the hot zone of the nuclear disaster for 25 years, defying authorities and choosing to return to their homes and risk their health and lives. Not as crazy as it sounds.
We all take risks. Just two nights ago, 2 cars parked right outside my folks' house were broken into. They live in a 'transitional' neighborhood, on the cusp of wealth and poverty. There is a fair number of bad guys, tweakers and thieves in these parts. But the neighborhood is on the uptick with new homes, markets, and suburbanites moving back into the city in their retirement so they may walk to just about anywhere and end their isolation.
These women of Chernobyl are a hearty sort, and determined to live out their lives their way. They seem to be having a good go of it, and apparently their survival rates are better than the displaced refugees of their towns.
So, here's to a bit (a bit!) of daring; grabbing life by the horns, and doing it 'my way.'
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I'm going back in time, once again, to visit my great great aunt, Lou Goodale Bigelow. I knew "Aunty Lou," and would visit ...
Thank you for posting this video about the Babas. Their photo portraits show great strength of sprit. I see a connection between the Babas and your poem in the previous post, with the natural world of California as your motherland.
ReplyDeleteI had no made that connection, am, but you're right!!
DeleteNow, you know why Holly is one of my heroes. She was actually working on a Globe Trekker segment when she "discovered" the Babushkas at Chernobyl. She had done some documentary work prior to signing on with GT, but dedicated most of her time to this film since, using Kickstarter to fund the post-production, as well as help from her Mother and friends. All that to say, THANK YOU, because I wasn't aware of her TED talk and really enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete(FYI: you can go into your Blogger edit and change the size of your embedded screen so that it fits within the boundaries of your blog framework.)
That was a very interesting video and something I had not heard about. But I do understand the connection to land having lived on this land for 37 years and growing up on another piece of land I loved for my first 18 years but was forced to leave by parents selling it. I also see this connection to community in people out where I live as some of these families had their ancestors homestead it. They have always known each other and i envy them that. A lot to think about and for some of us, we cannot have the connection these women had by the nature of our moving culture but we can sure appreciate it when we do see it somewhere.
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