An Open Letter to President Vladimir Putin -- Become Vladimir the Good by Stopping this War in Ukraine

Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of the Russian Federation,

I WRITE TO YOU today in a manner that perhaps I was destined to do all my life:

You see, one of my earliest memories was when the Soviet Union invaded my parents' country, Czechoslovakia on my mother's birthday.  I was 4 years old at the time.  These kind of memories, her face, stay with one all one's life.

I'm also named after an uncle of mine on my father's side who, the first one in his family to make it to the University, was arrested and imprisoned for being part of a student group which passed around, at that time, the 1950s, literature that the Communist authorities had considered subversive. 

Finally, on my mother's side, my grandfather (deduska) was Russian, actually and fascinatingly here 1/2 Russian and 1/2 Ukrainian.  His mother was Russian, his father Ukrainian.  My deduska was born and grew up in Mineralnye Vody "na Kafkazu" (in the Caucuses)  

He too as a young person had to run for his life during the time of the Russian Civil War, actually himself running from the Whites because he wrote into the local newspaper of the time a complaint asking why the White Guards had hung two of his best friends in the town square.  He was told by another friend that he had to leave town immediately or else he'd be hung next to them.  

That was the last time he saw his parents and family, who died in the famines that killed so many Ukrainians and one of the main reasons why the Ukrainians so want to be independent from Russia even today.

So I understand the youth of your country, the youth my country, when we get upset at strong men doing terrible things to people who honestly don't deserve to suffer or die.

BUT I ALSO WRITE as one who understands your central complaint against the West.  I too know _well_ the Western prejudice against Russians (and Slavs in general, but I'm going to write here specifically of Russians) who despite a 1000+ year history and a culture, religion, arts and music that can hold their own against any other and yet are ignorantly and arrogantly dismissed by people who don't even know what they themselves lost from their own cultural pasts.  I completely understand your complaint against the West.

And yes, I even celebrate the achievements of the Russian space program, who with ingenuity, improvisation, optimism and will, were able to achieve matters that the often perfectionist, petty and egotistical West was unable to do.

HOWEVER, FINALLY I WRITE TO YOU as a religious man:  I grew up in a family where all three major branches of Christianity were present -- Catholicism, Protestantism and through my mother Orthodoxy.  

I am a Catholic priest for reasons too complex to explain here, but I do know a fair amount about Orthodoxy both much of the good and some that could, with humility, of course, be improved.

I know for instance that the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow will NEVER tell you what to do.  In the Orthodox conception, you are in power because God wills it.

But why God wills that you be in power, is then for your humble discernment, and though the Orthodox Church would NEVER tell you why, the reasons _may not be_ for the ones that you may think you are in power.

For instance, if you stopped this War in the Ukraine, if you humbly admitted that despite your best intentions for the sake of Mother Russia and the Right Faith, you made a mistake,  THE ORTHODOX CHURCH WOULD PRAISE YOU TO THE HIGHEST HEAVEN AS THE GREATEST (RUSSIAN) LEADER WHO EVER LIVED.

Take a moment to reflect on this and YOU'D KNOW THAT THIS WOULD BE TRUE.

You would become a Saint.  Churches 500 years from now would be built in your honor.  

You would become known as St. Vladimir the Penitent, the Humble, the Good.  

500-1000 years from now, your name would be praised as a leader who despite having all the power in the world at your disposal (and all the temptations that come with it) that you realized that you had made a mistake, that despite your intentions you were hurting the innocent.

With the Patriarch of Moscow, smiling and praising you at your side, HE would forgive you, YOUR PEOPLE would forgive you.  

Even the Ukrainians, relieved that they'd be allowed to live, would honestly grudgingly forgive you, and a case would be made in their history for the next 500-1000 years that: 

"You know what, the Russians weren't all that bad.  This St. Vladimir COULD HAVE CRUSHED US, and after seeing how things were going, HE REPENTED OF IT and let us live.  What an amazing leader he turned out to be."

This is possible Vladimir Vladimirovich.

And in as much as possible, I, along with certainly many others, would be willing to do anything, to make it possible for you.  

Think of the people that you could let live.  Think of the example that you could give to leaders ALL OVER THE WORLD for the next 500, 1000, 5000 years from now.

You could become truly Great by becoming above all Good.

And the WHOLE ORTHODOX CHURCH would bless you for it.

Slava Russye, Slava Ukrainye, and above all Slava Bogu.

Sincerely and in Christ,

Fr (Batuska) Dennis Zdenek Kriz, OSM

Friar Servant of Mary

The Czech card game of Mariáš

During my recent week of Covid (Omicron) isolation, I took the opportunity to relearn a Czech card game called Mariáš.  The game must go back to the Middle Ages even though it remained an staple of Czech and Slovak tavern life through the centuries and even to this day.   The cards themselves are spectacular:

The game had been originally taught to me and my cousins by our uncle Zdeněk of very happy memory.  He died at 90 just before the COVID curtain had come down on the world.   Presently, my last trip to the Czech Republic was, in fact, in January 2020 for his funeral.

We all grow and we all lose things of our past.  But losing memory of how to play this game -- I still have a deck of cards for it – and even more, not really having anyone certainly nearby to play it with, produced a fair amount of sadness in my heart.   

So as I looked for things to keep myself busy during my COVID isolation, I thought to relearn this game and see if someone had come up with a way that one could play the game virtually, and perhaps even over Skype or Zoom.

It turns out that there are a number of Apps for both Apple and Android phones that allow one to play Mariáš against two AI opponents.   And talon.cz offers one the opportunity to play it against other living opponents at virtual tables.

Alas the apps are only available in Czech.  I even wrote to the writer of one of the Android apps if he had any plans in making the game available in English.  He wrote back saying that given the number of interested parties who’d want the game in English would probably number “in the dozens” he didn’t think it worth his time.

However, it occurred to me that a simple explanation and glossary would probably make it sufficient to allow English speakers to play the game on the aps available.

An Explanation of the Rules of the Game

An truly excellent and much more thorough English explanation of the game is offered here.

The Card Deck

The Mariáš Card Deck is composed of 32 Cards (Seven to Ace) in Four Suits:

Červený or Srdce (Red or Hearts)

Zelený or Listy (Green or Spades)

Kule (Bells or Orbs)

Žaludy (Acorns)

The Cards then portray: 

Eso (Ace), Král (King), Svršek (Over-Knave), Spodek (Under-Knave), 10, 9, 8, 7

Play

Mariáš is normally a three-player bidding game where two players play together against the one who calls the game.

Cards are passed out in the following manner:

Seven cards, face down, are passed to the player who will have initiative to call the game. After looking at the cards, he will have to set aside a card, still face down to the others, to declare a trump suit. 

The remaining cards are passed out, in groups of five cards, first to each of the other two players, then to the player who will have initiative to call , and back to the other two players. 

The players can then can look at their cards.

Note that the player with initiative will have two extra cards, so he will have to discard of two of the cards, face down to the other two players, before bidding begins.

At this point he calls the game.

The simplest game is called Barva (suit), in which he calls the trump suit (červená, zelená, kule, žaludy).

He can also call one of several other games:

(1) Betl -- If he has a lot of low cards, he can call a game called betl, in which he promises to lose every trick when play begins.

(2) Durch -- If he has a lot of high cards, he can call a game called durch, in which he promises to win every trick when play begins.

(3) Sto -- If he has a lot high cards especially in his trump suit, a „marriage or two“ (more on that below when we get to scoring), he could call „sto“ (one hundred) in which he promises to make 100 points with his hand after play begins.  (Scoring is explained below).

(4) Sedma -- If he really has a lot in his trump suit, including the seven (the lowest) card in the trump suit he could call „sedma“ in which he promises to end and win the last trick in the hand with the seven in the trump suit. 

After calling the game, bidding goes to the other two players.

They each can respond:

(1) “Dobrá“ which means „okay.“  However, if both respond this way without challenging him with a flek (see below), the game is forfeited to the player with initiative. 

(2) “Špatná” which means “bad” or “no” in which the player declaring it so, declares that he’s going to play a higher stakes game.  

The stakes go as follows – Barva (color), Červená (Red color), Betl, Durch.  So if one of the two opponents goes this route, he must pick a higher stakes game than the one declared by the player with initiative. 

After declaring “špatná,“ that is to say declaring that he is confident that he can play and win a higher stakes game than called, that person takes the two cards that were discard by the person who had previously had initiative.  He looks at his hand and discards, again face down, two cards (they could be the same ones, or could be different) in their place, and declares the new game.  Bidding starts anew with this new person having the initiative.

(3) “Flek” which means that the person is confident that he (along with his partner) will be able to beat the person with initiative at the game that the person with initiative had declared.

(4) Counter “100” / “sedma” if the person is confident the that person with initiative has really called the wrong game.  

Note that this can happen with some frequency as the person with initiative must declare suit looking at only 7 cards (without seeing the other five cards to be dealt to him).

So one or another of the persons playing against the person with initiative could bet that not only that the person calling the game will (1) lose, (2) but loose big (that his opponents will score at least 100 points together against him) or that (3) the person has so few trumps that the person calling this challenge will actually win the last trick with the trump suit's 7 card. 

(5) After someone calls “Flek” against the person with initiative, the person with initiative, if confident in winning the hand that he’s declared can “double dare” by calling “Re.”  The third player can double the stakes again by calling out “Tutti” and person with initiative can double the stakes again by calling out “Frutti.” One of the others can double again by calling out “Boty” (shoes), another “Kalhoty” (pants) and finally “Až pod stůl” (“all the way under the table).  

So occasional bidding wars can become quite amusing!  With each challenge, and counter challenge the stakes in the hand double.  So by the time one goes to “až pod stůl” one will have “bet the farm,” though the image here would be of betting all one’s clothes (only figuratively), so as to have to hide under the table if one loses!

Scoring (and winning / losing) a Hand 

In normal play (barva, sto, sedma):

In normal play, only the Aces and 10s count for points – 10 pts each – An Ace beats a 10, 10 beats everything but the Ace.   Additionally, the winner of the final trick in a hand wins 10 points.  So the basic number of points in a hand is 90.

However, there are also Marriages (from hence the game's name Mariáš probably originates).

If a player is dealt a Král-Svršek (King-Over Knave) pair in the same suit then he has been dealt a "Marriage," which he can declare, usually by playing the lower Svršek (Over Knave) card during the course of play.  Marriages in non-trump suits are worth 20 points, Marriages in the trump suit are 40 points. 

Note that while one can both have one's Aces and 10s captured by one's opponent(s) (or one can strategically play them over to one's partner) in the course of play (see below), the points for Marriages stay with the player (or side) who plays them.

So the total number of points that is possible in a hand can run as high as 190 (ninety points due to Aces / 10s and winning the last trick, and up to 100 points potentially available due to Marriages).  This is why, if one has a lot of high cards and Král-Svršek pairs, one can declare and seek to win a "sto" (or hundred point) hand. 

At the end of the hand, the number of points (between Aces, 10s and declared Marriages) held by the person who called the game are compared to the sum of the points (between Aces, 10s and declared Marriages) held by the other two players.  The one (or the opposing team) with the higher number of points wins.  

If a Sto (hundred) game had been declared by either side, that is measured as well.  If one met or exceeded the goal then one has won, if not then one has lost.

If one (or the opposing team) had declared a Sedma (ending with winning the last trick with the seven of the trump suit) game, and one succeeded in doing so, then one won that aspect the game, if not, then one lost.

If there is betting on the game (see below), if the person who calls the game wins, then he wins the total of the winnings. If instead, the team of other two playing against him wins then the winnings are split by the by team.

Betl (Low) and Durch (High) Games.

Betl (Low) and Durch (High) Games, points are no longer counted, the 10 returns to its normal place in the order of the deck, beating a nine and losing to a spodek (lower knave).  All that matters in these games is that the person declaring the game either loses (Betl) or wins (Durch) all the tricks in the hand.  If he does so, he wins the hand, if he does not he loses it.

Playing out the Hand

Understanding now how the scoring goes in the course of a hand, let's now explain how the hand is played out:

The first trick is initiated by the person who called the game followed by the others in clockwise fashion.   The winner of each trick initiates the next trick

In each trick, each player must try to both honor and beat the previous person's card in suit.

If one can't beat the previous card in the suit initiated but still has cards in that suit, one must still honor the suit by playing a lower (yet losing card in that suit).  

If one has run out of cards in the suit initiated in the trick, one must try to play a trump card.

If as the third player in the trick, one has run out of cards in the suit that initiated the trick, and the second player in that trick also has run out of cards in that suit (and has thus played a trump card in its place), then one must try to beat the previous player's trump card with a higher valued trump card.

If as the third player in the trick, one still has cards in that suit, but the second player not having any more cards in that suit has played a trump card, then one still must honor the original suit (even if that means one has to play a 10 or an Ace, hence losing those points).

If a player no longer neither has cards in the suit that initiated the trick, nor any more trump cards, then one can dump whatever card that one wishes.  (Note that there's some strategy here.  One can try to dump point cards to one's partner if one thinks that one's partner is going to win the trick.  Alternatively one may wish to conserve one's point cards in hopes that one's opponent or opposing side will no longer have the cards or trump cards to take them away at a later stage in the hand).

When all the cards are played, the points held (between aces, 10s and declared marriages) by each of the players is determined and the point totals of the two people playing against the person who called the game are added together, and the winner (see above) determined.

The cards are then brought together (but not shuffled, though the person receiving the first card in the next hand can cut the deck) and the cards are distributed in the next hand.

Playing for money / keeping a Tab

The base value of winning a Barva hand is 1 Kč. (1 Crown)

A flek doubles the stakes of the hand.  Any further doubling "Re", "Tutti", etc further increases the stakes of the hand.

The base value of 100 hand is 2 Kč.

The calling a "sedma" (closing the hand by winning the last trick with 7-trump suit) adds 1 Kč to the stakes (this can be presumably "fleked" as well)

The base value of Betl hand is 5 Kč.

The base value of a Durch hand is 10 Kč.

Note again that if the player who calls the hand wins, the winnings go entirely to him.  If on the other hand he loses, the winnings are split between the two players who beat him.

A tab is kept throughout the course of the play to determine who is up or down.

Note that this really isn't a game that is generally played for a lot of money.  Instead, this is a social game, played in a pub among friends over the course of a fairly long evening.

On the Czech King Přemysl Ottakar II the Stubborn / Arrogant but certainly Brave

 

Here is a great picture of Premysl Ottakar II one of the most important kings of Bohemia (Czechia) painted by Karel Řepka and posted on the FB group "Český Středověk" (the Czech Middle Ages).

Yes the Czechs had once been a kingdom.  Bohemia (Czechia) had become one of the six elector states of the Holy Roman Empire. Here Ottakar II thought that since his kingdom had become the most powerful kingdom of the H.R. Empire of the time, that he should be elected Holy Roman Emperor. Instead precisely because he was pretty powerful, the other Electors chose to elect a young upstart named Rudolph of Habsburg (the weakest among them) who was a mere Duke at the time to be Holy Roman Emperor.

 Ottakar II got angry, went to war against Rudolph as well as the other elector States of the H.R. Empire and ... died on the battlefield in the "Battle of the Moravian Fields." and history was largely written from there. The Habsburgs came to be one of the most powerful and longest lasting dynastic families in European history with their falling from power only in 1918 nearly 650 years later.

The Czech Premyslid dynasty came to an end though Ottakar's daughter Eliška (Elizabeth) married a young John of Luxemburg who became then the Czech king (King of Bohemia/ Czechia) and his son Karel (Charles) was laterelected as Charles IV as Holy Roman Emperor in the 1300s. Charles IV built (or completed the famous Charles Bridge in Prague as well as founded the famous Charles University in Orague, the oldest university in central Europe.

One thing that I like about the marriage of John of Luxemburg and Eliška of the Premyslids was that it consolidated the two greatest beer drinking peoples under one roof . And perhaps that was "an attraction" for (as remembered by the Czechs) the famously boisterous King John of Luxemburg who like Premysl Ottakar II (pictured here) eventually died in battle: 

With some battle somewhere beginning to go badly John of L was to have said: "Far be it for a Czech king to run from a battlefield..."

Course perhaps the other kings of the time and times since may have learned something from the examples if Ottakar II / John of Luxemburg ... you can't continue to rule if you're dead.

Still leading from the front seems far more inspiring than from the back.

Say what one will of Napoleon. He understood that too. While he did not die on the battlefield, he didn't ask his people to go where he wasn't willing to go himself. He went with his troops all the way to Moscow and later was captured with his troops at Waterloo.

Anyway all thus from a picture of a (to us) famous Czech king from the 1200s.

One final note Dante refers to Ottakar II / Rudolph of Habsburg in the Divine Comedy (Purgatorio Canto 7) He has the two _reconciled_ singing in choir (with the other Kings of history) in front of the Door to Purgatory waiting for all the other souls to pass to fulfill Jesus' saying:

"The first shall be last and the last shall be first" (Matt 20:16)

And final PS -- It turns out that Premysl Ottakar II was born in the same year as St Philip Benizi / the founding of the Servite Order ... 1233 ...

On a Modern Day Mystery - "The Viking of Prague"

About a year ago, a fellow American Servite gave me an article about the discovery of the tomb of a  “Viking” under Prague’s Castle in the 1920s.  I’ve since lost that article but have been interested in the story ever since.

The story shows up occasionally, both the English and Czech press, in good part because it’s fascinating: What was he doing there?

There’s a Wikipedia article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Castle_skeleton

The most extensive recent article about it in English was written by Nicholas Saunders, Jan Frolik and Volker Hold in Antiquity 39 370(2019): 1009-1025.  

The article was quite good, suggesting at the end that he was probably Nordic, but that at the time, he might not have considered himself as such, or was simply a mercenary or adventurer, who nonetheless was prominent enough to warrant the kind of burial that he had received, at a time, incidentally either before or just after the foundation of Prague’s castle.    

Looking up / following some of the links / references made in both the Wikipedia and Antiquity article, I wrote then the principal author asking him if this “Viking” would be considered something of a 9-10^th century “Heydrich” figure.

My argument was this: 

(1) It is attested in the Fulda Annals of the time (attn non-Czech readers, just use the “translate option” on your web-browser to have the various pages here translated into English) that throughout the period in question, Bohemia and then certainly Central Bohemia was already clearly Slavic, though Bohemia was contested territory between the Frankish Germans to the West and the Slavic Moravians to the East, and pretty much every year the Frankish king sent out an expedition to Bohemia to plunder or otherwise extract tribute.  

(2) In 872 there appeared to be indeed, a famous battle “U Vltavy” [FA] [Wikip]  where a Frankish expedition took on five Czech Princes and possibly a sixth named Gariwey (Bořivoj?).  That Frankish expedition apparently successfully scattered the Czech princes, but after the princes fled to their citadels the Frankish expedition was unable to do more … and subsequently went home. 

Okay, I suggest that (1) _perhaps_ the encampment of the 872 Frankish expedition was on the _up to then uninhabited hill_ on which today's Prague Castle stands (it would seem like an obvious, strategically useful place to setup such an encampment), (2) after waiting some time for the Czechs to surrender after “scattering them at the Vltava,” THE COMMANDER of that expedition DIED either of battle wounds or simply disease, and (3) the Frankish expedition built him a nice “hero’s tomb” there on the hill and … went home. 

Indeed, if one understands the Fulda Annals correctly, raiding Bohemia to plunder and then going home seemed to be the “modus operandi” of the Frankish Germans vis-à-vis the (Slavic) inhabitants of Bohemia of the time.

Subsequently (4) good old Bořivoj the first historically attested to member of the Premyslid (subsequent Czech royal) dynasty, its first Christian leader (certainly St Ludmila his wife was already baptized), and the traditional founder of the Hradcany Castle, _perhaps_ noting the success of building good strong citadels against Frankish incursion, (a) left his existing citadel of Levý Hradec to the Hradčany site, (b) built (or improved) the wall around it, (c) built a nice church dedicated to St. Mary _near_ but _not_ on top of the tomb of the “Viking” / Frankish warrior, and (d) left the tomb untouched so as to both _not provoke_ the Frankish king but also to put the tomb  “under his protection” and thus … beginning the history of Prague’s castle.

 The advantage of this explanation for the presence of the “Viking” at Prague’s castle would be that it would respect the history of region – that it was already Slavic dominated at the time – and yet explain “the Viking’s” presence.  What was he doing there?

 Linking him to the Battle at the Vltava of 872 would explain both the tomb's presence in the midst of a land that was otherwise not Nordic or Germanic or no longer Nordic / Germanic at the time.  

Coda (I hope :-) on the Presidency of Donald Trump

Obviously, I've never been a fan of Trump AS PRESIDENT [1] [2] [3] [4]. To be honest, I kinda liked his show The Apprentice. I'd _never_ fire people like he did, and never have, but I liked the show. But as a leader, from day one he seemed TO ME to be of the Mussolini mold.

Anyway, attached here is IMHO the best article about Trump's dictatorial ambitions. Put bluntly, the OpEd author wrote that Trump was simply _too lazy_ to be a dictator. The closing paragraph reads:

"Subverting democracy requires more effort than Trump is willing to exert. He wants to be a dictator, but he’s unwilling to do the work to become one. Just as he inherited a fortune, he wants to inherit an autocracy. To be a successful strongman, you need a strong work ethic. Trump has only weak ethics."

https://www.latimes.com/.../trump-coronavirus-dictators

Indeed, this Wednesday as he was psyching up his people for his "Beer Hall Putsch" (without even providing the beer...), he told the people, "And I will be there with you." NO HE WASN'T. Was it too far? Was it too cold? Was he just lazy? He just went in and watched it all on TV.

The John Coleman character in the "Big Lebowski," shocked that his friend's rug was pissed-on by Nihilists ("They don't believe in anything") rather than Nazis, said "Well, I'll be damned, say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it was an ethos."

Anyway, thankfully it's all coming to an end -- still 5 people died -- without the costs being worse.

Oh yes, and then there's the 350K people who died here of the Coronavirus, while everywhere else, things have been led much better than here. But again, it honestly could have been worse.

On the Death of Supreme Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a tireless defender of equal rights for women.  She moved our nation incredibly forward in making us "a more perfect union."  

Her passing will now force a new generation forward to take up the question of abortion, a true Gordian knot, which pretty much all sides understand to tragically pit mother against child.  

The truths on both sides will remain, as they have since Roe v Wade, for a new generation (or generations) to try to successfully resolve: 

Abortion kills children in the first, most defenseless, stages of life.  Yet eliminating abortion will require _convincing_ women who didn't necessarily want the children conceived (for any number of reasons), and may have been _raped_ to conceive them, to bring those children to term.   

I've chosen the word _convincing_ rather than _coercing_ as a means of perhaps moving the question forward.  

Convincing _could involve_ finally providing universal access to affordable health care (and day care) to all people in the United States.  And even in the extreme cases of rape and incest, the idea could be explored (among certainly many others) of offering _generous financial rewards_ (reparations) to women who were raped but nevertheless brought the children conceived to term.  

It should be possible to map out a way to confront the question of abortion in a way that does not return women to second class status which no people of conscience, _including the Catholic Church_, would accept.  But we'll certainly have to become creative.

I WILL VOTE

Please share.

I WILL VOTE

President Trump has decided to try to defund the U.S. Postal Service (!) in hopes of keeping his opponents from voting BUT I PROMISE TO VOTE.

I will google "register to vote" to make sure I'm registered. I will register if I am not AND I WILL VOTE.

I will go to my assigned polling place AND I WILL VOTE

I will wear a mask, I will wear gloves, I will socially distance, I will stand in line FOR HOURS if I have to BUT I WILL VOTE.

If someone spits at me, coughs at me or laughs loudly in my face, I will brush their spit off of me, wash my face when I get home, take a shower if I have to when I get home BUT I WILL VOTE.

And yes, if I catch the coronavirus, if I die as a result of going to vote, I WILL BE PROUD as I will have "given the last ounce of my devotion" TO MY COUNTRY THAT I LOVE.

As I learned as a school child, I will proudly sing IN MY HEART _every day_ UNTIL ELECTION DAY

My country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims' pride,

From every mountainside let freedom ring!

LONG LIVE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA !