Influences

All our life consists of influences. The surrounding environment influences us and we influence it back. These processes are going on uninterruptedly. Almost all of them are happening without being noticed. But some are so strong that they change our mind. I'd call them key moments. Sometimes it happens instantly. For example, respect for a particular person can be changed at once after his nasty, or in complete opposition, heroic action. Sometimes influences are small, almost unnoticed, but they could be accumulated. When their number reaches a critical point, it activates a trigger in the brain and your attitude toward this subject will be changed, sometimes drastically, to the opposite. I love to watch babies when they switch from crying to laughter and back in an instant.

At some point in my life I started to notice such triggering moments. It was interesting. It is hard to arrange them in a sequence of importance, but I can recall enough to illustrate the idea. World War II. In one day our more or less normal life was interrupted and we were put in misery. No need to explain as it is obvious. The death of my father in a battlefield was the biggest catastrophe for me. I lost my main guide in life, my teacher, my friend. My mother wasn't able to substitute enough for him. Now I'm almost twice as old as he was when he died, but he is still in my mind and heart, a leader. From birth we were taught that we were the happiest children in the world, as we lived in the only really free and democratic country and we had a government that cared most about its people, led by comrade Stalin. After awhile we started to notice some contradiction between real life and this mantra. It took many years of accumulated evidence to show us that our leaders and government cared about people less and less, and more and more about just themselves. So, at some point the trigger in my mind switched and I started to consider my authority as my enemy. I was thinking then that it was our fate to live and die in the USSR, but then in the time of Gorbachev there happened a kind of revolution from above (I think it was unheard of before in human history, that not the people, but the leader started to destroy the oppressive regime). We were able to leave the country for a democratic land. 

Drunk in Snegiryovka

 It happened long ago, in the late 1950’s. A small episode was so cinematic that it still stays alive in my memory.
A little town, Snegiryovka, in Southern Ukraine, central square, unpaved though. It was a late fall, drizzles a mix of snow and rain. Nobody walked on the streets.
We were a group of people, staying at the bus stop, waiting for the bus. Our mood was dismal   due to the  gloomy weather. On the opposite side of the square was a convenience store, with the porch completely covered by mud, so it became just a slippery hill. This kind of earth was very fertile, but also very sticky. To walk on it was quite a drag, tens of pounds could stick to your boots.

Suddenly, on the horizon of the road appeared a drunk bumpkin, obviously heading toward the store to “improve” his health. For us this guy became the main attraction for entertainment. All eyes on him. Dangling and swaying, not aware of anything around, he came to the porch, tried to step up and slid down. We became a bit merrier.
The drunkard, not paying attention to us, made another attempt, trying to use his inertia. He stepped back and ran uphill. However, all inertia of his subtle body was not enough for success, and he slipped down again. It became so laughable that we forgot about the damned bus for a while.
The guy entertained us a few times more, but  the stubborn hill didn't give up. He was yelling and gesticulating, cursing probably bloody KGB,  your mother, and the whole unfriendly world.
Finally, he gave up, waved his hand and left.
However, it happened that he walked on the washed away edge of the road in an unfortunate manner. One foot walked on the edge, another one on the bottom of the shallow ditch. He felt that something was going wrong, but what particularly was unclear.
He lifted one leg, examined it, and put on the ground. He lifted another one, didn't find a problem either. And he continued on in the same way to our amusement.