ENVIRONMENT

I was born a month before the civil war broke out in Tajikistan. The conflict lasted for 5 years and created danger and instability in all spheres of life. Many, including our family, lost their jobs or found that their salaries became devalued in a new economic reality. People had to adapt or leave.

Prior to USSR’s dissolution, my mother and grandmother were a part of mountaineers’ community - doctors, architects, engineers, mechanics, poets, construction managers and academics - who shared a love for skiing, hiking, rock climbing, and spending time together as a “Kollektiv”.

They continued coming together every weekend for an outdoor outing in spite of the war, economic hardship, lack of infrastructure, water, and electricity. They engaged in mutual aid outside of the mountains, celebrated each other’s birthdays, mourned losses, and processed change together.

In the chaos of new capitalism, without systemic incentives to maintain this community, this was a fragile, human-made thing, sustained by will and shared purpose in a small pocket of a crumbling world, that somehow kept on going.

Fortunately, I became a part of this community and spent the first 16 years of my life feeling like I have a family of about 50 people, who I could always turn to for safety, knowledge, and fun. They taught me to respect nature and to see beauty in the bare grey rocks. They taught me the value of friendship and camaraderie, of caring for others, of being egalitarian, of having integrity, of doing hard things together and creating joy, even when the circumstances are unfavorable.

Looking at them and the surrounding reality, I was under the impression that there is clear “good” and “evil” in the world, that there are concrete truths, and that values of Integrity, Friendship and Nature are either universally accepted, or should be.