My Sunflower Ring…and Ukrainian Memories

I could title this “The Ukraine I Met” rather than the “The Ukraine I Know” because like most travelers there, I met a lot of Ukrainians, but did I get to know them?

Hardly.

Meeting and knowing people are different. Like acquaintances and friendships are different. Both are significant but one is more surface like, fleeting, passing while the other goes deeper, with greater understanding between the two parties. A tasting menu versus a full meal of comfort food you’ve enjoyed since childhood.

But do I remember ones I met? Many of them, yes.

Years after my travels to Ukraine, this past summer I sat in a small USA midwestern town restaurant enjoying a Chardonnay with lunch. The server, not harried or busy, wanted to chat. Her family, two generations earlier, had come from Ukraine but she retained the connection to the country.

“I have Kiev wine glasses in my car,” I prattled.

I had bought the delicate long stemmed glasses in Kiev or was in Odessa, had carried them to Nursultan, Kazakhstan’s capitol, on to Frankfurt, to New York City or did my routing take me through Los Angeles? On to my Central Oregon cabin and eventually to Monterey, still in their original Ukrainian wrapping papers.