Love Macedonia
How do Macedonians demonstrate their love for Macedonia, not just today, on Macedonia’s Independence Day, but throughout the year?
Despite the problems facing Macedonia as a whole, and the problems perhaps facing you as an individual and family, how do you demonstrate your love for Macedonia?
You do love many things about Macedonia — I know you do because you tell me you do. Not often enough, but now and then, you tell me what you love about Macedonia. Sometimes grudgingly, sometime openly, but you do tell me because there is plenty to love about Macedonia.
When I visit, I see something new every time — and not just something, but something good, something very good. I see new young people (and older ones!), with an entrepreneurial spirit, opening up new businesses, shops, and restaurants — and succeeding. I see, and experience, specialty shops and restaurants which offer new takes and twists on Macedonia’s old world food traditions, as they strive to show visitors, travelers, and Macedonians, new ways of dining and drinking in Macedonia. As I dine with family and friends in restaurants, I see, and hear, Macedonians engaging in that old form of storytelling — song — as they sing songs of old around the table in restaurants throughout the country as a local musical group belts out Macedonian songs and stories, to be passed down from one generation to the next (this is not a tradition in my country, and I lament it).
I enjoy new wines and rakijas as Macedonians take one of the most abundant resources in Macedonia — grapes — and turn them into new and delicious beverages, continuing the story of telling Macedonians — and the world — about this long tradition of making beautiful and incredible wines and spirits. And then I see these products being exported around the world, telling, and more importantly showing, others what Macedonia is all about and what Macedonia has to offer.
I see Macedonians loving Macedonia and taking pride in Macedonia’s achingly beautiful landscapes, in their posts on social media showing the world Macedonia’s many beauties like Ohrid and its surrounding towns and villages, Kratovo and its rugged hills, the many mountain ranges of Macedonia and its natural beauty. There are a handful of individuals I follow on social media when, each time they post a picture of some spectacular sight in Macedonia, I simply click on it to make it as large as possible on my screen, and then I stare at it, thinking myself there, smelling the air and drinking in the views. And when I am in Macedonia, I try to go to these places and experience it all in the moment.
I see Macedonians reveling in sport and the sports teams that, win or lose, represent Macedonia around the world; some of my greatest memories in Macedonia are when a sports team, such as handball, brings back a major win and trophy and how Macedonians take to the streets in rapturous celebrations. I see the same thing when Macedonians in the cultural spheres — film, literature and poetry, and the many other arts — take their crafts and products around the world and are celebrated by the world, which has experienced something new from an old country, Macedonia.
Beyond all of these very tangible and visible things that I see, hear, taste, and experience, things that show me how Macedonians love Macedonia, I see the ultimate proof of love for Macedonia — through the family.
I see parents trying their best to raise their children correctly, and to provide and care for them, love on them, and teach them right from wrong, sometimes in very difficult circumstances. I see grandparents and uncles and aunts and sometimes older siblings doing the same thing for their grandchildren, nieces and nephews and younger siblings — because adults, at the very least, should know, intuitively, that it is these young ones who must be molded and trained so that they can grow up to become responsible adults who will then start families of their own. And when it comes to the subject of Macedonia with these young ones, I see these same adults working with and instilling in their young dependents a knowledge of and love for Macedonia; because these young ones will be, whether they want it or not, the next generation to carry on the torch and flame of Macedonia.
As you celebrate Independence Day, my Macedonian family and friends, I hope that, as you gather with family and friends, you too, can ask each other how you love Macedonia and how you demonstrate pride in Macedonia.
How do you love Macedonia?
