I’ll Follow The Sun
The world of pensioners. Weather. Love and blood.
“In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct..”
“When I travel I have nothing to care for but myself, and the laying out; my money; which is disposed of by one single precept; too many things are required to the raking it together; in that I understand nothing…”
In the end of this mortal life the world of retirees is not so terrible as it might seem at first glance. You can consider this world as the threshold of hell, of course, but this is not entirely true.
First, it is huge. Its immensity does not mean the desolation of the lunar landscape. On the contrary, everyone can find something to their liking here.
Secondly, suffering and torment in this world, as a rule, are experienced by two categories of beings: empty personalities and former bosses.
People who throughout their lives have tried to fill the inner emptiness with a conscious search for conflict may feel deeply dissatisfied.
Such people do not have enough conflicts and they continue to look for them, turning into a grumpy and embittered pensioner.
These retirees, especially if they are legally literate, can not only spoil the mood of the cashier in the supermarket, but also disrupt the normal work of an entire corporation.
Former bosses usually lack the drug of power. You can see how the head of the department, who is already retired and terminally ill, continues to give instructions over the phone to his subordinates.
It is difficult for such individuals to imagine that the world and their organization can perfectly exist without them.
They continue to exercise their power until their death. Their main goal is the exercise of power as itself only. They enjoy the process of leadership and the achievement of the goal of the organization in this case is secondary.
Such leaders are especially evident in budgetary organizations. They act like parasites. In commercial structures, where profit and results are important, they would be disposed of immediately, but in budgetary organizations they can flourish for decades. They are ready to give guidance on the cell phone from the grave.
Third, there are many people who experience a sense of liberation and quiet joy after retirement. Obviously, it is better to deal with such people.
Given the title of these notes, I will return to the world of retirees later in the next notes.
Well, now about the weather. The weather matters. Weather matters for farmers, ship captains, pilots, and so on. The weather is of particular importance for motorcyclists.
Sitting in the saddle of a motorcycle you become a real amateur meteorologist. Life in the future, and we all live in the future, allows you to have access to various Internet sources that provide information about the state of the weather in real time. These sources are very useful but unfortunately do not exclude the biker getting caught in the rain.
Driving in the rain for several hours gives little joy to the rider. You have to stop to put on a raincoat, have waterproof bags, watch the wet road and have other uncomfortable difficulties. I'm not looking for rain. I try to follow the sun.
So I show some cowardice and follow the sun further south instead of west. My next stop is the city of Uman, where there is a beautiful Sofiyivka Park.
The park was founded in 1796 by Count Stanisław Potocky, a Polish noble, who named one after his Greek wife Sofia. It was a gift of Stanislaw Potocki to his wife on her birthday.
Zofia Potocka was famous in contemporary Europe for her beauty and adventurous life. During the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) she was the lover of the Russian commander prince Grigory Potemkin and acted as an agent in Russian service.
Compatriots of her time wrote: "She was beautiful as a dream, a child of southern countries. All those who have seen her admire her beauty, igniting a fire in the hearts of men and envy in the eyes of women."
It is noteworthy that Count Pototski rebuilt Uman after a peasant uprising - Koliivshchyna. Koliivshchyna was a major haidamaka rebellion that broke out in the Right-bank Ukraine in June 1768, caused by the money (Dutch ducats coined in Saint-Petersburg) sent by Russia to Ukraine to pay for the fight of the locals against the Bar Confederation.
The dissatisfaction of the peasants was caused with the treatment of Eastern Catholics and Orthodox Christians by the Bar Confederation and by the threat of serfdom, as well as the anti-nobility and anti-Polish moods among the Cossacks and peasants.
In three weeks of unbridled violence the rebels slaughtered 20,000 people, according to numerous Polish sources.[citation needed] The leaders of the uprising were Cossacks, mainly Maksym Zalizniak and a commander of Potocki's private militia, Ivan Gonta.
Eventually the uprising was crushed by Russian troops, Ukrainian registered cossacks of Left-Bank Ukraine, the Zaporozhian Host, and aided by the Polish army. Its two major leaders were arrested by Russian troops on 7 July 1768.
Ivan Gonta was handed over to Polish authorities who tortured him to death, while Maksym Zalizniak was exiled to Siberia.
The rebellion was suppressed by the joint forces of Polish and Russian armies, with numerous hangings, decapitations, quarterings and impalings of Polish subjects and of those Russian subjects who were captured by governmental Polish forces themselves.
The park is located in the northern part of the City of Uman, Cherkasy Oblast (Central Ukraine), near the Kamianka River. Some areas of the park are reminiscent of an English garden.
It should be noted, Sofiyivka is a scenic landmark of world gardening design at the beginning of the 19th century. The park accounts for over 2,000 types of trees and brush (local and exotic) among which are taxodium (marsh cypress), Weymouth Pine, tulip tree, platanus, ginkgo, and many others.
There are many scenic areas in the park including waterfalls, fountains, ponds, and a stone garden. It is one of the most famous examples of late 18th or early 19th century European landscape garden design that has been preserved to the present time.
No comments:
Post a Comment