Happy, elated even, best describes how I have been feeling for the past few weeks.

My last blog post is only just over two weeks old, but enough stuff has been happening to warrant an update, so here it is: happiness has quietly settled down and decided to make its nest in my heart. It has grown, reinforced by daily communication and new discoveries. John and I have decided to keep trying to know each other better. So... it's still very early days... but we're doing good, I think.

We understand the dangers of long-distance relationships. There are many examples of such relationships failing; there are also, thankfully, some more positive examples of similar relationships still going strong after one year (*points at Paya and Westie*).

I already knew that communication is key to a developing relationship. I now know that Internet access is key to a long-distance one. My phone line went out two weeks ago; and after 2 hours, seeing that the internet was still not back, I was frantic. After a trip to the local library (that has free internet access) in order to alert John, I rushed to buy a BlackBerry. [That means I can now read GA stories on my way to and from work, so double bonus ]

Getting a short message from John every once in a while is enough to brighten up my day but my mood is also helped by the fact that I feel healthy and in shape like I have never felt since I was 18..., if ever. I have pretty much reached my goal of 135lbs (for 158lbs 3 years ago). I'm still preparing for my June marathon, with another marathon scheduled in November. Initially, I was going to train like crazy for this last one, because the plan was to qualify for the Boston marathon (one of my major objectives), a goal which was quite within reach last year before I broke my ankle, since I had run my last race under 3h08'. Whatever time I will make this year won't matter much because I don't think I will be travelling to the US in the Spring of 2012. My eyes are rather turned towards the East right now .

In other news, I was invited to an exhibition at the Paris City Hall earlier this week. On top of standing just a few feet away from the Paris Mayor while he improvised a great speech in honour of an American historian, getting free champagne and petits-fours, I was fascinated by the exhibition. It consisted of archives from writers and editors from the World War II period. It showed how French writers and poets chose sides at that time. Some joined the Resistance and wrote against German occupation and against the French Vichy government which collaborated with the Germans. Others embraced the new German-friendly regime and its anti-Semitic, nationalistic and reactionary ideas. It is a terrible thing to see a country so utterly divided, to see people who worked together in the 1930s being thrown into irreconcilable camps. This was only 70 years ago, and a similar situation could happen again. I am particularly worried about the far-right gaining ground in many countries recently (France, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.). Jews, Communists, gays, and many other categories of people, were sent to the death camps last time those guys were in power.

Anyway... this prompted me to wonder what I would have done if I had been a writer/intellectual in 1940 France. Although I'd like to think that I would have joined the Resistance, it's easy to think that from the comfort of my 21st-century life. Would I have been ready to sacrifice my job? my reputation? my life? the lives of friends and family?

So I'll leave you guys with the words of Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the communists

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

 

Then they came for the trade unionists

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

 

Then they came for the Jews

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

 

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

(Source)

Our own happiness doesn't mean we have to forget about pain and suffering, past and present.