Vaclav Havel has passed away
CNN’s obituary does more justice to Vaclav Havel than I could hope to, but I’d like to add a few of my own thoughts on the man.
In Prague, I once stayed in an establishment called the “Art Prison Hostel.” Its management tried to hide the fact that its rooms were former prison cells by painting the hallways sky blue with orange trim. The titular “art” was a series of paintings of cartoon animals decking the walls. As I made my way through the winding cement children’s-book halls, just across from a silly smiling giraffe, I noticed a gold plaque next to one room’s orange doorway. It was a placard honoring Vaclav Havel, who had been imprisoned and tortured in that cell by the Soviets.
That strange mixture of the goofy and the totally badass embodies for me the personality of the former Czech president. He was so many things: playwright, revolutionary hero, president, peace activist. He withstood four years in Soviet prisons. He presided over Czechoslovakia’s first years of independence, resigned in sorrow at the Velvet Divorce, and presided again over the Czech Republic. He was the subject of a wonderful documentary, “Citizen Havel.” He wrote plays, philandered, sent philosophical letters to his wife, and sometimes signed his name with a heart. Amazing.
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