Georgy, Narcissism and Community in the Post-Communist Bloc

"I want my relationships to be sharp." Georgy is a psychoanalyst. He is a powerful man. His words come out sparsely, but when they do, they stick. As if this whole story really is connected, when I arrive there is a reunion of two groups of fasters Jora (as he is affectionately called) has taken out on the land since he got back to the Ukraine after the Death Valley experiment, and one of these was not only fasters, but their families came with them. He says it was like a village, almost thirty people in camp together, and then sending out their fathers and sons and wives and the rest staying, tending the fires, making food together. Perhaps there is space, room for our families in this work, indeed for all families. And what if it is even more potent, more powerful, that the families are there? That there is a community there to receive the fasters, and that while they are out, there is a community supporting each other in base camp?

How simple, how original. I don't know what it means. But it happened. And it worked. And all were touched by it--every member of the family had a new unique experience, and each member of the family participated in the story that came back from the mountain. How can these stories remain only personal, when there is a community there to send them off and to receive them, and not become something more?

It seems like Georgy answered the Uwe and Rebekka directly. You make room for and honor the family by doing just that, include them, and see what alchemy is there hen the many small circles of family join together once again around the camp fire.