Galina DeRoeck

Theology Uncorked

WHY DO WE NEED ENEMIES? I had initially planned to talk about my peace activism, which included several trips to the Soviet Union, mostly with religious groups, to conduct people-to-people encounters. I will refer to them briefly, but now feel that it might be more timely to focus on the Ukraine issue. This is, inContinue reading “Theology Uncorked”

Salt of the Earth

So how do I take it from what John the Leninist/Stalinist told you? As Joe warned you, I am the child of Russian exiles. What that actually means is that my family, on both sides, were Whites, i.e. fought on the opposite side of the Bolshevik Revolution, and left the country in 1920. What thisContinue reading “Salt of the Earth”

SCHIZOPHRENIA by Ronald Chase

I’ve been reading books on mental illness for the last thirty years because my son has been diagnosed with a number of them, including schizophrenia. Dr. Chase’s book is one of the better ones I’ve come across. His is a double story: A story of personal grief as he witnesses the course of his olderContinue reading “SCHIZOPHRENIA by Ronald Chase”

Love in the Time of COVID

The dialogue presented here is a record of the woman’s version. My companion John and I have been isolating now for some time. Like everyone else, we do venture out for groceries (wearing a mask) – and walking our dog Andy in the park (without a mask). I insist on the mask mostly not toContinue reading “Love in the Time of COVID”

The War Drums are Beating Again: Can you hear them?

My friend John and I did a Trans-Siberian train trip last July. I had been to Russia, and before that to the Soviet Union. My connection to that part of the world has to do with the fact that my parents were born there, but left the country in 1920 because they were on theContinue reading “The War Drums are Beating Again: Can you hear them?”

The Cave

She hadn’t gone on a hike for some time. When she woke up that day, and all the stuff she needed to do started piling up in her head, she decided to take a hike. But she had promised to take Betty to chemotherapy, and the girls, her granddaughters Suzie and Nicole, needed to beContinue reading “The Cave”

THE CLOWN by Heinrich Boll

INTRODUCTION Heinrich Boll was born into a catholic pacifist household that apposed the Nazis and he refused to join the Hitler Youth. He was apprenticed to a bookseller before going to Cologne University to study German. Conscripted to serve in WW II, he was wounded 4 times and also contracted Typhoid Fever. He was capturedContinue reading “THE CLOWN by Heinrich Boll”

A Tribute to My Three Fathers

This is a hopeless task. At a time when tales – not just your everyday story of deadbeat dads – but tales of rape and habitual paternal molestation are the topic of the day… At a time like this I want to remember my kind, interesting, amazing dads – all three of them.Continue reading “A Tribute to My Three Fathers”

Cassandra

Cassie was a happy girl. When she woke up, the sunbeam that had managed to steal trough the pinhole in the Venetian blinds painted jumping rabbits in all the colors of the rainbow right on the wall of her room. She always brushed her teeth after breakfast, like a good girl, and the toothpaste tooContinue reading “Cassandra”

On the Streets of St. Leninsburg

My very first trip to what was then the Soviet Union took place in 1984. As I sat on the plane it occurred to me that the year “1984” had caught up with the title of George Orwell’s famous dystopia, and the thought crystallized all my own misgivings and secret fears. I had read theContinue reading “On the Streets of St. Leninsburg”