Russian Gulag

Tomorrow You Go Home by Tig Hague, Gotham Books. 2008.

You don't find books. Books find you. The story of this British banker who lands in Moscow in July 2003 on a simple business trip and ends up in a merciless Russian prison nudged my attention as I walked past it in the library last week. The red jacket with black stripes looked right and the spacing of the sentences felt good as flipped the pages. "A twenty first century Midnight Express" described the story in the inside flap. A young man arrested in Moscow for carrying a tiny amount of hash in his jeans pocket. The year 2003 has meaning to me in that it was the last year of life as I once knew it. Still I picked up another new book and spent an hour reading its story about Sirhan Sirhan and the assassination of Robert Kennedy. In the end I put back the book I selected and checked out the book that found me. For a week I read.

Tonight I finished Mr. Tig Haque's true story. What happened in his story is not why I came to the office tonight to write my thoughts. When it happened moved me. July 17, 2003 was possibly the exact date when I discovered Aaron had taken on pot smoking. Tracking the story almost perfectly, Aaron was in full crisis within 3 months, the same time it took for Mr. Hague to go from problem to full blown crisis in his situation.

The story continues with Hague being sentenced to 3 plus years in a horrific prison in the frozen Russian wasteland. He landed there about the same time Aaron arrived at Mount Bachelor Academy. As Tig Hague wasted away and suffered in misery, Aaron was rebuilding his sense of well being. Hague's family mourned, and we found hope. While Hague nearly died, Aaron was given new life. Finally in April 2005, Hague was released from prison and reunited with his family. About the same time, early May, Aaron died.

The tracking of the two stories, one ends in happiness, the other is sorrow didn't jump out at me until I read the Afterward. "...flew back to London in the spring of 2005." One nearly dies and finally lives, the other nearly lives and finally dies. While one family rejoices, another mourns.

The sun shines on the joyous and mournful at the same moment. The paradox of life.