Street and number

We entered the final, twelfth part of this year more restless than ever in recent times. May intolerance spark everywhere, like electricity, both in the world and in the Region and in Montenegro.

And the question is whether in the new year we can expect a calming down or a flare-up of (low) passions.

***

Until recently, I left the apartment to the left, along Mila Boškovića Street, then further, left again, towards the opticians, near the godfather, or right, along Vladimira Rolovića Street, towards the coast. But, for a few days now, I've been heading to the right from my building, along Ulica Popa Pavla Radunovića, towards the Temple, then to the same destinations.

It's a strange feeling when you walk down the street that was named after your grandfather, the former parish priest of Bar, archpriest Stavrofor.

There are several reasons why Proto Pavle got his own street. And only this one is enough, which was witnessed, among others, by my mother, his eldest daughter.

One morning, in the first half of the forties of the last century, the army came to Pope Pavle's house, which was across the street from the church of Saint Nicholas in Stari Bar. The commander was striking, with sharp features and a serious face dominated by a well-groomed beard.

- Pope, not to spoil it, tell me which Muslim champion should we start with? - I don't understand what you are talking about. - Don't pretend to be crazy, you know what I mean, we have to pray for their atrocities. - What cruelty, there was no cruelty here? - Come on, Pope, they were in other places. Say the names. Prota paused. Later, he said that he saw the death knell before his eyes. - If you want to do it in my parish, it will have to start with me. Tajik. - So that's it. - So... I can't do it any other way. - Brothers, do you see this priest, he has one foot on Volujica, the other on Sutorman, but so be it. Come on. And as briskly as it came, the army left. It is not known whether the commander just wanted to tempt the opposition or if he really intended to kill the Muslim champions, but since then the Muslims of Bar have had a special relationship and respect for Pope Pavlo.

***

From time to time, a word gets out in front of everyone and then it is used to exhaustion by politicians, artists, athletes... everyone who appears on the public stage. And just as it came, suddenly and out of nowhere, the word goes out of common use and almost everyone forgets about it. I think the word "focused" was used most often this year.

On the other hand, some words rarely come to the fore, they are not even in dictionaries, but they are irreplaceable and describe certain personalities with surgical precision, such as the word "maljugan" (fool, ghost). I have the impression that the rogues are conquering space, that they are expanding, that this is their time...

***

With each of his appearances, lately, on the occasion of any crisis, misunderstanding or just doubt, he manages to deepen the divisions. When he said that the gathering from a century ago in Podgorica was shameful and treacherous, it was known that, although for a hundred years it was exalted by 90 percent of Montenegrins, it would very soon become "shameful and treacherous" for half of Montenegro. But, hardly any resolution will convince the other half of Montenegro that the Podgorica Assembly was not necessary and natural.

And what does Montenegro get? Nothing. Only new hatreds and divisions.

***

Throwing bones in the form of returning to the past obscures the present, which says that we are in crisis again. New, higher prices for anything and everything come as quietly as Doc Holliday, and wages stagnate and are just enough to barely survive and pay the bills. We groan as soon as any extraordinary expense strikes us ("a washing machine, water heater, TV... or a bed, sofa, ottoman sinks...)

An additional attack on the standard will be the announced increase in the price of electricity from January 1.

***

Apparently, there is nothing to do with the construction of a kindergarten in the courtyard of the Gymnasium. I do not believe that anyone is so ignorant and imprudent as to destroy a green oasis in the middle of the city center, for which the mayors of many metropolises around the world would give "innumerable treasures". And in a few years, Bar will be a big port city that will be proud of its cypress trees next to the Gymnasium, just as today it is proud of the pine that grew in the walls of the Starobar fortress. That wild pine is Bar's biggest tourist attraction, an unavoidable picture that guests, wherever they are from, take home with delight.

***

Božo Ulićević, a prominent Baranin, died. I knew him through chess, and through Momo Popović, my first director at Radio Bar. He was a bohemian in the true sense of the word, which means that he knew how to relax, but to complete all his obligations before that. He had that kind of commotion because he knew his beautiful family was waiting for him at home. And he was the actor of many anecdotes, some of which found their way into two books of "Bar Tales".

And I heard this one at his funeral. Since he lived in the apartment above the now also deceased Novica Vučković, Božo sometimes knew to count Vučković's ban on the stairs. Once, when he realized that the living room was not his, he "got away with it" in a smart way. He just made a circle around the table, grunted: "Ha, again scattered" and left the apartment, leaving the housemates confused, who, when they understood what it was about, sent their good neighbor away with a smile.

***

I have the numbers of a dozen relatives and friends who are no longer alive in my phone book. And I don't delete them. I don't know why, I guess because I know that, where they are now, they are glad that some people still think of them, even if only when "Contacts" is on the mobile list.