Prologue

Strongpoints

If the times were better, we would be sitting in some blossomed garden and looking at the map, choosing our destinations for the approaching summer. Inspired by the exciting idea of traveling, which is an ancient idea, but always new, we would be already feeling the scent of the sea or mountain herbs in our nostrils, and of gastronomy specialties and new wines. “We would feel the old memories and the young dreams rising.”
However, our reality is unfortunately not so romantic. In the world around us, nothing is certain, everything became relative. Principals and values, law and justice, truth and beauty, crime and punishment, maps and borders, oaths and dreams, even the man himself. Maybe the travels in this issue of National Review are a kind of new marking of the most important strongpoints or the foundation of sacral geography (Hilandar, Tsargrad, Russia, Belgrade...). Maybe this is why we direct our search deeper into the mountains of our country, where contours are still visible and views are distant. Maybe that is why we visit and talk about people who are strongly standing in their work, who do not lose their path and do not hesitate in what they do, despite everything.
Finally, that must be why the verse of Despot Stefan is always on our minds:
“As Much as We Can, We Knit Our Song.”