Veterans Day is an important and unique holiday in the United States and celebrating the selflessness and sacrifices of our fighting men and women should be a priority to all citizens of the country. While we should not need a set aside day to honor our veterans, who should always be respected, it is central that at this time with two wars being fought we recognize our veterans. As a West Virginian, the honoring of veterans is a very important to me as we have a high population of veterans and a deep love and respect for those in the armed forces. Both of my grandfathers participating in WWII, my grandmother’s sister was nurse during WWII, and I have three friends who have participated in the operations in Iraq. I am truly grateful for all of their sacrifices along with all veterans.
I mentioned previously that I was going to read “The Master and Margarita”, however, I actually read Solzhenitsyn’s “One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich.” The first time I heard of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was when he died earlier this year, and I read an article about him in the Economist. The man led a unique life from the USSR to Europe to the United States and finally back to Russia. While he was vehemently anti-capitalist, his writing about life in the Soviet Gulags gives a view into the harsh life of Stalin’s country. The purges against peasants, the arrest of Red Army POWs, and the wastefulness of postwar Soviet life all play prominent roles in the work. However, I find the different survival methods of the prisoners to be the most interesting. Many of them no longer dream of freedom, and have learned unique behaviors to work the system. I devoured “One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich” in two days, and is a must read for anyone interested in Soviet history or Soviet/Russian literature.
On a happy note, I finally got accepted to graduate four rejection letters later. I am excited, but waiting to hear from two other schools as well. I just read an article this weekend about riding out the economic downturn in graduate school. Looks as I will be following the author’s advice.
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