Color
Jedi Council Member
Masks are mandatory in stores and small shops and in public transportation here in Croatia. I'm wearing one when I have to, on which I wrote "Corona is a fraud".
All over the path around the lake Jarun (favorite destination for all the capitol city's population to go to, through the week and especially during the weekend) there are sprayed printed sings on the ground with that very same message, only in Croatian 'Corona je prevara' It appeared over night about a week ago and since I'm at the lake daily, never fails to put a wide smile on my face! I will take a photo of it next time I pass by. :)
Watching the reactions of others is interesting. Some are cheerful and approving, some are indifferent and some just roll the eyes. Most people are not pleased with "new normal", but still largely obeying the rules. There is also some question raised about sheer legality and unconstitutionality of the decisions made from non elected quasi-political "National crisis HQ" but nothing concrete so far. One thing that I'm noticing is that elderly ladies are much more prone to align with new rules and I'm still figuring why!?!
From what I have learned about our history as a 'nation' (tribes which migrated to this area, from where exactly nobody seems to agree till this day ;)) and what I've observed so far in my life, we are quite a contradictive bunch! We were conquered and submitted again and again, through out the history, by so many empires that we should wholeheartedly apply for some Guinness record in that area! But then again, through those oppressions, we still seemed to thrive, producing exquisite minds and hidden movements of people gathered in mutual cause for the common sense and plain good heart.
I know this may sound as a distant song of the long past endeavors, always ruined by some new ruler of the land, and I'm aware how today's Croatian land is a heavy mixture of many other 'tribes'. But still, there is something about this lil piece of Earth and people who were born to it, something which I wouldn't trade for any other place that I've traveled to, or lived in. I spent so many years running away from Croatia and it's people only to find myself being pulled back, with a strong sense of love and belonging. Finally. The circle is closed. :)
All this talk reminds me of one story which I can't find anymore online, about one lady from Iran who had to escape with her family to the USA in order to survive, cause their lives were threaten from some political party back home. That story happened many years ago, when the USA was still considered The Land of the Free. After few years in America, she begged her husband to go back to Iran, no matter the very real and immanent danger for their lives, explaining it how she feels the freedom the USA gives her is like a Satan's paradise! She would rather go back and be killed for what she finds to be a True living than to live even a second longer in the society which approved of everything!!!
Sorry for the digression; about the 'old ladies' you've mentioned- I observed the same phenomena, my mother being one of them. But also, even in greater numbers, the young girls in Zagreb. I've concluded it's the gender issue, in general. And I find it to be the same all over the world. I have many thoughts about how and why this came to be, but that's a whole other topic of discussion. Briefly, it's about converting the strong connection with higher emotional energy centers of female gender into a source of food. Something along those lines...