Russians

I grew up watching movies and the news that convinced me that Russians were brutes and villains.

I didn’t know any Russians. It didn’t occur to me that I could know any Russians any more than I could know Dolph Lundgren.

When I moved to Chicago as an adult, three Russians became my best friends. We spent hundreds of hours together camping, eating, and watching movies. We laughed about the 1980s movies we watched in our own countries and what those movies made us believe about each other.

None of it turned out to be true.

What did turn out to be true is that we were a lot alike.

Once we got to know each other, we really liked each other.

Since then, I’ve never thought of any people in the world as my enemies. Especially now that I’m a dad. I know that Russian dads feel the same way about their sons as I feel about mine. I know they want the same things for their boys that I want for my Daniel.

The Russians are in the American news a lot these days. The conflict is playing out between our governments; I just can’t get that into it. I think of Lena, Linda, and Vlad, my Russian friends from early adulthood.

I can never think of the Russian people as anything but my friends.

Where I’m having more trouble these days is thinking of some of my own neighbors as friends. All those people who didn’t vote the way I voted.

All those people who just can’t see it my way.

What do I believe about them? Where am I sourcing my beliefs?

How much of what I believe about them is actually true?

After all, many of them are dads like me.

What if we could stop letting our politicians cast us as enemies?

What if we could eat together, go camping, or watch movies? What would we learn about each other?

The coldest war is at home.

How can we use our homes to warm our relations with each other?

Grace and Peace.

And Happy New Year.