So much for rest for the weary. Once I return from my second winter, I get to visit Moscow 10 days later. When I get back, I will have logged more than 200,000 flight miles in the past 12 months (some, god forbid, in coach).
I don't mind so much going to Moscow, the place where my incessant traveling began two decades ago.
When I first started out being the only American foolish enough to actually start a business in the Soviet Union, I thought of myself as a bit of a pioneer. Of course many of the pioneers that went West, the way of Horatio Alger, lost everything including some who were given a haircut and close shave. After realizing seven years too late that I was one of the contributing factors to Russia's economic turnaround through transfer of wealth -- a riches to rags story that even Alger couldn't turn around -- I often pondered the circular lament of knowing then what I know now. Just as an aside, wasn’t Alger the 19th Century’s version of Michael Jackson?
Well now is, well, now and I know a bit more than I did back then, so I will poke my head behind the iron curtain again and hope I see something real instead of some guy yelling, "never mind that man behind the curtain..."
No comments:
Post a Comment