Saturday, October 12, 2013

365 Days of Jazz Hands - Day 285

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12th, 2013

Freedom, as we define it, is just not in our DNA.

Starting this journey from a tiny, confined space, our comfort zone was established very early on.  Dark, warm and overtly restrictive, there we sat all curled up in a cozy little womb.

When the Germans surrounded Leningrad during World War II, they severed the lifeline to the citizens of the great, Russian city.  For eight-hundred and seventy-two days, innocent lives were expended in what is considered to be the most costly military siege in history, by an overwhelming margin.

No food.  No water.  Important men, the women that stood by them and their innocent children ate bread made of sawdust, distributed selectively and secretly.  A police force was instituted to ward off the ever-increasing popularity of cannibalism because all of the birds, rats and pets had been killed off for food.  260 locals were jailed for eating their fellow mankind.

Piles of humanity succumbed to starvation and disease.  Between January and February of 1942, 700 to 1,000 citizens died every single day.  All told, Project Barbarossa claimed 1,500,000 lives within the boundaries of the surrounded city, 1,400,000 others, many of whom were women and children, were evacuated, but most of those perished as well.  A staggering death toll.  Genocide at its finest (please take that as sarcasm).

Leningrad was entombed...confined...

They didn't know it, but the people of this great metropolis were destined to emerge.  Emerge wounded, certainly.  Emerge broken, humiliated and demoralized, yes.  But resiliency knows no boundaries. 

On August 9, 1942, "Symphony Number 7", also known as "Leningrad", was broadcast through loudspeakers throughout the city, aimed toward enemy lines.  A few days later the Russian military launched a massive, offensive attack.  Against all odds, the city was liberated.

By no coincidence, August 9th was also the date that Hitler had initially set to celebrate the taking of the prominent Russian city.  

In their darkest hour, Leningrad was reborn.


Today's Jazz Hands yelled like hell to the heavens to celebrate resiliency, to hail the underdog, and to redefine freedom.

Day two-hundred and eighty-five complete.

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