The other night Djalma and I watched 'Peaceful Warrior'. D had seen it before and wanted me to watch it because of the ideas in the film. The main idea - to live in the moment 'the here and now' and not waste time thinking about the 'there and then' helped the main character to improve his gymnastic technique and then overcome a shattered leg.
We talked about this ideology in our little kitchen afterwards. It's an idea which D has mentioned a few times while we've been living here in Moscow, more often than not when we're planning our honeymoon and I get a little excitable about all the beautiful places we're planning to go to. I know it's a good idea to focus your mind and your energy on the here and now (instead of spending 99% of your time thinking about what will happen), an especially good idea if you get run over by a pissed motorist, don't wake up in the morning (and not in the 'oops I'm going to be late for work' way) or, as I'm becoming increasingly more worried about - your plane making an unexpected stop in the sky with no-where soft to land.
But if we only focus on the present, it makes learning from our past mistakes and planning for a future a little difficult to do. I can't decide whether living by this philosophy means a life half lived or a life more fully lived.
What really pissed me off about this brilliantly simple philosophy is that if we should do just that- what the hell am I doing in Moscow (future husband aside naturally)?
D often tells me that while we should have fun planning we should also make the most of Moscow (which I heartily agree with) but it doesn't make my boss competent/friendly/professional (and I would settle for any one of these qualities) and it certainly doesn't make strangers in the street/metro/shop any more polite/helpful/friendlier, the primary result of these conversations about being happier and enjoying life to full is that I feel more keenly (than I usually do) that I'm doing an appalling half arsed job of being happy here. Of course there are lots of moments when I am happy but I'm always on countdown, whether it's until the end of a class, my lunch break, the end of the day, the end of the week (and pay day), the next holiday or until we finally leave (the 2nd of May - 55 days to go).
If we could really live in the and now, I would pack our passports, Djalma's Credit cards, toothbrushes (and of course plenty of moisturiser) and get us on the soonest flight somewhere warm and friendly or maybe do the Tran-Siberian again - Russia's only redeeming feature (everything and everyone outside of Moscow).
Well true to English form I've done complaining very well,if it were a sport I'd be Olympic level by now, an opinion well seconded by my sweetheart. Anyway, the morning following this film I did start thinking about a relatively similar school of thought a la Pollyanna (introduced and practised by my Nan).
Not long after I moved to Moscow, late 2008/early 2009 I think, I was having a fairy miserable time of it, I played the Pollyanna game while wandering, lost, down town in a pretty area of Moscow. I think I made a list when I got home but despite having a good look I couldn't find it to help me with this game now, so from memory and with some additions, here goes round 2 of the Pollyanna game - 20 things I like about Moscow:
1) Of course this one is a biggy - meeting, falling in love and living with my boy
2) Our own flat, not controlled by BKC who are able to move their teachers round at whim
3) The Metro System, which I can not seem to stop banging on about
4) The first snow of the year - fresh pretty and without the yellow patches after accumlated after weeks of attention from dogs, drunks and those busting for a quick waz
5) Making loads of dough, the likes of which I doubt I'll have the opportunity to make again
6) The unique Russian architecture, metro stations aside I'm not talking the soviet period here, building which pre-date Lenin which survived the soviet period
7) The playgrounds for kids which are repainted each spring
8) The Kebab pizza we had on Friday
9) The nice big parks (definitely enjoyed more often when D was living in Kolomenskaya)
10) Being to to cuss under your breath at the pleb who just barged passed you in the street or metro nearly knocking you over without fear of being understood
11) Not speaking Russian, an odd one I'll grant you but it's got me out of some unpaid overtime involving seminars, parents evenings and conferences
12) Ice cream and flower stands everywhere - I haven't done it recently but an ice-cream walking home in the freezing cold while you're toasty and warm makes that ice cream so much more delicious
13) Clean streets thanks to the zillions of of street cleaners who are up and out there super early
14) It not mattering when you walk on freshly mopped floor in a corridor/shop/wherever because they do it every 5 minutes anyway
15) CHOCOLATE PANCAKES!
16) Chivalry, admittedly this is selective - the same man who knocks you and countless other over on his way to somewhere important may also be the same man who gives you his hand to help you down an icy mountain of old snow (this happened to me the other week on my way into work)
17) Nobody looks twice if you're a lone female in a restaurant - girl power!
18) Moscow isn't so far away from home that people can't come and visit me
19) Copyright laws are in no way enforced (as far as I can tell) so you are free to download any and everything you like
20) Contrary to what I was told before coming here, tampons are widely available in Moscow - a big plus surely! Never mind my years supply is still going strong.
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