Friday, August 10, 2018

The Southern Saga

 
 ......the war for the South never ended.  Yes, the bullets stopped flying long ago, but the effort to eradicate the traditional Southern way of life has continued.

In the book The Mystery of the Wonder-Worker of Ostrog, the main character, Mladjen, a fictional representation of the modern Serb uprooted from his traditions by the lingering effects of Communism (who is very much akin to many of those inhabiting the New South, shorn of so much of their past by the all-too-present effects of Communism’s alter-ego, Capitalism), has a searing encounter at an abandoned church in the countryside:

Suddenly, a piercing cry rang out, resounding clearly through the church as though in a mountain cave and rousing him from his reverie.  He let go of the window bar and retreated a few steps from the church.  He looked at the sky and saw a huge eagle circling above the village with mighty flaps of its wide wings.  Shielding his eyes from the sun with his hands, the young man drank in the bird’s unrestrained and powerful, yet peaceful movements as it cruised overhead.  Suddenly, the words of a poem came to him and he cried out on impulse:

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