Prologue

COMMON SPRING MIRACLES IN SERBIA
Don’t Talk about Life behind Its Back

It is not a little thing to witness a miracle and know this. To realize that there is nothing in the world that is not mysteries. Not to talk about life behind its back, but fight for your place in it. Stay awake and smile. realize that Nabokov was right: ”Imagination is only a form of memory.”
And all this happened to us, or could happen to us, this Easter April 2015. The holy fire arrived here from the temple of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem, for the first time in this worn-out new century, and blossomed all over Serbian countries. Young knights, Celtic and Serbian, rode around the Belgrade fortress, a song was heard from the past. In the Danube backwaters, on the Banatian side, old war boats were noticed, silent and quick like haiduk’s steps.
This spring we found ourselves at Koštam Polјe, the lobby of the Pester Plateau, like in a hidden pocket of time. In the south, in Poreč, we hang out with descendants of militia soldiers under Turkish occupation. In a little house in Srem we visited the author of the famous song. In Mačva, we searched for a new was to an old painting. Mesmerized, we discovered Serbia with the eyes of young American Emma Fick. We visited old friends and recorded their successes. We listened to mature experiences of formerly well-known basketball player Dejan Tomašević, today the Vice-President of the Basketball Association of Serbia, and one of the founders of the organization ”Holy Serbia”. We met Vretenko the Dwarf again in a wrong fairytale. We collected encouraging forecasts in energy giants on the Kolubara and Sava.
When we put everything together, there is nothing to be left out.
Take a little at a time, and spice up to taste.
And don’t forget to close your eyes before they throw dust into your face again.