There was a time when I was free to wander the streets of New York. One longer walk took me into Brooklyn and all the way to Brighton Beach to a small, heavily Russian community also known by the name Little Odessa. It was a sunny, pleasant, weekend afternoon and the entire community seemed to be out at the beach and indulge in the spring sun. I cannot claim to know much about Russians , their habits, aspirations and the like but I left with the strong sense that this was a close nit, cross generational society and most importantly I learned that you can take a Russian out of Russia but you cannot take Russia out of a Russian.
