My birth certificate states Soviet Union as my birth place, though my passport proudly declares it to be Republic of Lithuania.

My country is 25 years old today. And though most of my foreign friends can barely understand what it's like to be older than (an official version of) your own homeland, the concept of freedom is still absolute. Don't take it for granted my friends, whatever part of the world you live in. One day your freedom may end for decades: your words and actions suppressed, your expression (self-)censored.

Though one day the chance for freedom may come back: the hint of it in the air, the taste of it in a mouth, the sound of it in a song, the glimpse of it behind the corner. If it gets so far, no one can stop it.

And then, one can only pray that the rest of the world will support it, as Iceland and Denmark supported Lithuania in 1990 (though it would have been so much more comfortable for them just to go pass us without turning their heads and hearts towards us) and how we, now on the other side of freedom horizon, should support the next ones fighting for the same goals. ‪#‎Ukraine‬

Never try to stop or calm down those rushing to freedom. One day they may become free after all and become a living reminder of your own conformism.

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P.S. Love this little note by now somewhat legendary film maker Jonas Mekas published in The New York Times, 1990.