+ Pax Dear Kitty, I love your music and I love your way to live openly, naturally, with dignity and grace, your faith. I am very sorry for your father, and I admire your public stand on his behalf. Myself, I did not know my father, almost: he died as a Russian soldier (commander of a battalion) at the beginning of the war with the Nazis, when I was one year old (the only preserved picture of my family before the war is enclosed; my father is on the left, with my mother; she died very early, of sufferings; all men on the picture very killed as soldiers during the war with the Nazis). In your letter to all of us “Why I didn’t do IVF”, you mention all sorts of people who might have reacted to your decision: “orthodox Catholics, unorthodox Catholics, ex-Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, agnostics, new-agers, etc. Add to this list a Russian boy of Jewish origins, totally ignored of them and raised as a communist, who discovered God at the age of 19 and became Russian Orthodox, a scientist, who, expelled as a dissident, came to Jerusalem to learn his Hebrew heritage, who continued his Christian journey in France, Italy, Canada, etc., to become “orthodox Catholic” preserving his Byzantine and Jewish heritage. You know well my Father, and much less my “father”, the Jewish people. From Him I have learned the love for my brethren, whoever they are, because we all are His beloved children. From him I have learned the value to be a father himself. From His Daughter, Spouse and Mother I have learned the admiration for the spiritual Motherhood which keeps me afloat. From Jewish women (Orthodox, of course, as me — with a surprise and an ironic smile I have discovered that I am always Orthodox, — Communist, Russian, Jewish or Catholic !) I have learned the greatest respect for the “low”, everyday motherhood, with all its dramatic, tragic, and cheerful implications. Among the possibilities you consider remains that of adopting a living child. Among my numerous children, thanks to Him, there are two boys from the first marriage of my wife adopted by me and successfully carried on my shoulders (it was a very heavy charge!) for fourteen years — to a dignified manhood. With love and admiration, Edward