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StrangerThan -> RE: Can we be "good" without god? (10/4/2011 6:58:03 AM)
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They migrated to the US prior to building a house beside me, sweet. As I said, my uncle knew them before I did, several years before I did. I never asked him, the son, when the family had come over. 1999 was the year I met him. According to my uncle, the son had run a body shop for several years not far from his repair shop. If you want me to hunt a specific year, I can do that. I can call my uncle and ask him, or I can drop by and see the son tomorrow if it's that important that you have the specific year, but my impression at the time was somewhere in the early to mid 80's.
Persecution of religion, any religion, is well documented in the Soviet Union. These same folks, once the house was done, planted cedars in a box around their property. Anyone who has flown over the plains in the middle of the US and Canada would recognize the shape. I figured that was the reason, that maybe his family too had lived in flat lands denuded for crops and used the trees as a windbreak. Western North Carolina is fairly mountainous though, and in fact, has the highest mountains east of the Mississippi.
It didn't click with me that the planting of the cedars coincided with prayer meetings and gatherings at his house until I asked him about the trees one day. I mean, it's kind of odd to create that type of natural structure around property in a place dominated by forests. He said, it makes us feel safer.
Shrug.
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