"Then shall thy light break forth as the morning"
Aten, Ra, Horus, Shamash, Surya, Suryaprabha, Dazhbog, Khors, Yarilo, Mithra, Inti, Helios, Apollo, Amaterasu, Huitzilopochtli, Sol, Oni, Beaivi, Freyr and Freyja, Sól or Sunna…
Despite the many differences of form, the substance is kindred. Cosmological metaphors make many myths related. In many languages we speak of one thing.
My ninth summer was spent in the village, and it got off to a lucky start: falling from the top of an oak, I got caught in the lower branches. I came to hanging upside down, and beneath me lay a heap of bricks left from a ruined monastery. By the end of the summer only the huge grazes on my sides remembered that fall, and all I cared about was how to reach the wild cherries on the upper branches. With broken ribs and a punctured lung, I did get to eat some wild cherries. My uncle did not come with the car right away, and I lay there, it seemed to me, for an eternity, wheezing and listening to Ba pray. In her prayer I heard my name, and that calmed me. Ba had no real time to think, but it seems she did not need to: she decided at once to go into the hospital with me, leaving her large household at the most important time of the year, the harvest and the preparations for winter.
On the way to the district hospital Ba kept praying; I could see her lips moving. We were put, of course, in different wards, but hers was next to mine. At first it was hard and painful for me to move, and Ba would come and tell me all kinds of stories and tales, and read to me. Of all books she had brought only the Bible and other scriptures. I liked the way Ba read and explained the passages she thought were important. I think that even with the explanations I understood little. But from how absorbed Ba was, it was clear that this mattered.
From Ba I inherited her enormous heart, her endless love, and an icon she made herself. All of this is mine, all of this is part of me, and it is my duty to keep this gift. Ba is forever in my heart and memory.
Dedicated to my dear sun, Ba
Thanks for the help and involvement to everyone who took part, especially Marina Minakova and Zhenya Mironov.
With love
Andrey Minakov
