Today was the Victory Day. When I said yesterday that I love it for the fireworks and the nightwalks with friends I really meant it but these are not the only things that make it so special to me. I honestly do not get the same feeling even on New Years Eve when seemingly magic is at work and any dream of yours is supposed to come true. But there is no magic except for the one that we ourselves create for someone we care about and this one kind can only be expressed in kind loving actions towards this very person and nothing material—otherwise can you imagine how sad it would have been to live in a world where the biggest desire of one’s heart were to have a personal airplane or a good job instead of an ability to fly or a chance to do something that would help to save someone’s life?

Anyway, as I was walking along the Constitution street this afternoon I saw the veterans, chests covered with medals for courage, and I wanted so desperately to come up to each one of them and give everyone a hug and thank everyone for what they sacrificed for our peaceful lives and…I didn’t. I was telling myself that if only I had a red carnation or at least an ice cream to give I would have had an excuse and would have come up but truthfully, this was not the reason. The thing is I was merely scared to do it. I thought they would look at me weird but at the same time I knew this was an absolutely absurd idea—they never had before when I was a little kid and why would they now?

In the end of my walk I finally gathered all of my ‘courage’ in one piece and came up to an old man standing alone in the crowd. I said ‘How are you and Happy Victory Day and may I take a picture of you to keep and remember you’ and his face lit up with such a happy smile that who would have guessed. He said ‘sure’, then he said ‘of course’ and then he said ‘yes please and thank you very much’ and I took that picture and than showed it to him and then realized that may be just may be if I had that obligatory 9th of May red carnation or a stupid ice cream to pay off for all the fights he’d been through he would have looked at me weird, but thankfully, I didn’t.