My Own Understanding of What Happened

Why did we leave Poland?  My older daughter asked me this question a few times.  I still don't know what to tell her.  The facts are so many, so overwhelming, so double sided. 

In the end, all that has ever rung true for me is this:  Here I am, Polish born raised and living in Amerika, with two beautiful daughters who I love.  And, really, that's the most important fact.  My daughters. 

I hope one day they understand what I mean when I hug them and say "Life is a complicated, strange thing.  And it led me to where I needed to be so that I could be sitting here hugging you.  That's all that matters, really."

Other subtle facts float by on the edges.  I have an American accent, not a Polish one.  My kids are Polish-American, not just Polish, not just American.  We are the bridge between the two worlds, as there always is in every American family.  At some point in all of American family history, there is a bridge between the two worlds.

There is nothing wrong with preferring a snack of pickles over potato chips, or loving barbecue pulled pork, or not knowing what it means to stand in line for hours for food.  There is nothing wrong with continued contact with the family left behind.  There is nothing wrong with speaking English, the third language of a person's life, better than their mother language. 

So, how to answer my daughter's question?  I don't know.  And part of it comes from the fact that, in order for my parents to answer it, they will have to look back on that time and embrace homesickness as well as the feeling they had watching the news, seeing with their eyes what was happening, and then snuggling their little baby girl after standing in line for food.  They can't answer it all the way, nor can I.

So, I started looking for videos I could save to show my kids later in life to explain.  I found this one.  I'm not sure if I should share it.  I don't fully understand the facts, whether it was really like this, I'm no historian, no sociologist, no diplomat, no expert.  I'm just a Mama.  That's enough.

To those of you who remember this time, or understand it, what do you think of this video?  Does anyone else struggle with how to answer this question when your children ask?

Na razie...

30 Years Ago Today in Poland: Martial Law

30 years ago today, on December 13, 1981, Martial Law was imposed on Poland.  We had just fled Poland a couple of short weeks before.


I cannot imagine what my parents must have been going through.  I was born in June of 1980.  The following month, general strikes began to ripple their way across Poland.  Wroclaw was an important center of this movement.


I know in the textbooks in Amerika, Gdansk is the city mentioned in regards to Poland's Solidarity movement.  But the textbooks like to sum things up in a neat one to two sentence note about anything having to do with Poland and that summary really doesn't do the movement, that historical movement, or Poland for that manner, any justice.


Perhaps you have never heard of the Orange Alternative or Pomarańczowa Alternatywa.  Let me give you a brief tidbit about it.


The Orange Alternative was a new option that made it easier and safer for more people to peacefully protest the Communist regime. Basically, they drew graffiti art and slogans referring to dwarfs (krasnoludki) and wore orange hats like dwarfs in mass gatherings and other such activity.  None of it was illegal and if they were arrested, it made the arresting officers look like ridiculous because they would be arresting people for wearing dwarf hats.  It was a brilliant idea...




I cannot imagine how my parents must have felt, watching events unfolding around them with a brand new baby girl.


I plan to share some photos tomorrow that I found which were sent to us by family and which I believe have to do with that movement.


Na razie...


Links You Might Find Useful:

New York Times Article: "Dec. 13, 1981 | Poland Cracks Down on Solidarity Movement"

Poland Cultural Institute of New York article about film "The Orange Alternative"

Not An Alternative

Wikipedia's Orange Alternative

Wikimedia's Dwarves in Wroclaw (photos)