In Joseph Campbell’s “Hero-Myth Cycle”, said to be an archetypal template for all stories, all stories begin with a call. The hero always rejects the call, and eventually a catalyst occurs that sets the journey in motion.
I’m no hero. If I was a hero, I’d have never left Eastern Europe without making sure it was known. But in Campbell's definition of the word, the hero is the protagonist of the story, no matter how flawed. Instead, I second-guessed myself, dismissed my instincts, and rejected the call - until the catalyst set it in motion.
I’ve only recently begun to learn about the power of twin flames. My twin flame grew up in the Soviet Union. We were young when we dated, and I knew little about the world. He was only a few years out from living behind the Berlin Wall, and he still held the weight of those memories. I felt whole with him and like I was vicariously learning about his experience without him ever needing to speak it. And in some way I couldn’t describe, I believed that someday I was going to need his knowledge about the world. That’s what twin flames are - two people who compliment each other in such a way that unspoken purposes begin to make sense, two people who have a shared mission.
It was the summer of 2008 when I landed in Latvia. I hadn’t seen him in ten years. We’d had some contact, but not enough to set me at ease. My dreams were telling me he could be in danger.
I only had a few minutes with him in his country, but it was probably the most healing event of my life. There were apologies I needed to say; I needed to check on him; I needed the closure.
After we said goodbye, I took a train ride to the beach. There’s a Baltic tradition of writing regrets on stones and casting them to the sea. It was time for me to do that. I took that ride to clear my head.
On my way back to town, a man sat down beside me on the train. He began to tell me that foreign powers were financially backing our most popular Presidential candidate, and that as soon as he was elected, all countries would begin to collapse. It would be an opportunity for the world to globalize. It would be like the Soviet Union again, except this time, the entire world would be behind the wall. Only the elite powers would be left standing.
After my train arrived at the station, I went up to skyline bar and looked out over the beautiful city to think about all he had said. Then I dismissed the whole thing as some extremist illusion and put it behind me.
Five weeks after I returned to America, Russia attacked the Republic of Georgia. Panicked, I wrote to my friends in Eastern Europe and asked if they were alright. A friend replied to me, “Thank you. We are fine. Our situation is different from theirs. Unlike us, Georgia had gotten into debt and had entered the Soviet Union voluntarily. Then after they entered for a bailout, they wanted out. That’s why Russia believes Georgia owes them money.” I took a sigh of relief and again closed that chapter.
On the morning of November 5, 2008, I sent a congratulations text to a friend and carried on about my day. I noticed a pep in my African American colleagues, and people seemed to be smiling a little more.
When I got home from work, I exchanged some emails with my friends in Latvia. As I was closing out my browser, a trailing news bite scrolled across the bottom of my screen: “Russia moves missiles into the region between Poland and Lithuania, pointed towards Poland.”
I wrote to my friends overseas and said, “I think something’s wrong.” They weren’t interested. After years of imperialism, they were relieved to be done with the Republican party. They wanted to celebrate, to just feel relaxed for a change.
The following week I read that our President-elect traveled to Moscow, shook hands with their government, and agreed to take down our missile defense system for Eastern Europe. I followed the story as our Department of Defense began arguing with the new Administration. I began insisting that my friends abroad take notice and start making preparations to evacuate. They didn’t want to hear it.
(image from Bing, licensed as free to share and use)
Then one day I received an email: “Dear friend, we’re in deep ****. The bank of Latvia has collapsed.” It never made our news.
The Wall Street Journal took notice four years later of the promise that was made on an accidental hot mic. during the next campaign cycle in 2012 - the promise that those campaign promises to world leaders would, after the next election, be fulfilled:
http://www.wsj.com/video/obama-medvedev-hot-mic-gaffe/5F7CF09D-CFD5-4805-A72C-3378D5F8371E.html
(video of hot mic. moment linked)
My belief is that the governments who were waiting on those campaign promises (in possible exchange for campaign contributions) turned out not to be the powers who the elected Administration actually intended to help rise to power (cue the Muslim Brotherhood & the rise of ISIS) - and that as details of that betrayal began to become clearer after the 2012 election, our two governments began and have been fighting ever since.
(To Be Continued…)