IN EXILE

In Exile

Down and out in Siberia.

Grim.

Better not have any illusions that life is going to get better.

No matter who you were.

Better to leave that former life behind.

Best philosophy for survival:

Old Semyon -- "I want nothing and I am afraid of nobody, and the way I look at it is that there is nobody richer and freer than I am."

Worst philosophy: Ask the Gentleman who tried to bring his pretty wife from Russia to live with him. She left him cold.

The Tatar might not agree.

He just wants to taste the good life for one day. "Better one day happiness than nothing."

And there you have it.

Do you keep dreaming of that one day of happiness when you are surrounded by gloom -- or do you just accept what you have and feel free?

And if you're in the mood for more Siberian gloom and doom -- read Dostoyevsky's terrific account of Siberian penal life,  The House of the Dead.

I would also recommend Primo Levi's Survival In Auschwitz -- Levi mentions how the ones who were best able to survive were the ones who abandoned their illusions about what they had before and saw the reality of where they were now.