#[adds as a disclaimer Faramir’s quote about I love only that which the sword protects etc etc.]

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

so I just read Alone Together by Yelena Bonner, a Soviet dissident, who was permitted to briefly leave exile in Gorky and stay with her family in America for a sextuple bypass, during which time she wrote the book and did not take it back to Russia with her

in her final chapter, she talked about how “the American does not want war. The American wants a house. […] for privacy and independence, and his House is his pride and joy.” I may have the quote wrong because I’ve already returned it to the library. anyways.

she talks about how “the President does not want war. The President wants a House,” referring to the Reagans’ plan to sell their big house and buy a smaller one after his term was up.

she talks about how the American’s desire for a House—and the way he treats callers when he finally has one—differs from other countries’. his House is for privacy, but not to shut people out. his House is his pride, but also his joy, to have his family in it and tend a garden on it. his attitude toward his House is also his attitude toward the world.

and she talks about how she had never had her own house all her life, and how her exile to Gorky with her husband was the closest she had come to being mistress of her own domain. Except of course, their home was bugged and they left the key in the door so the KGB agents wouldn’t break the locks trying to enter in their absence.

and it just struck me how, in nearly 40 years, Americans are still the same. For now. I think the importance of property is rather lost on my generation as a whole, but here in Texas, we young people are all trying to get houses before it’s too late.

We don’t want war. We want a house.