A communist general and the paternal lesson from Elder Bâră

In order to carry out re-education activities, a club was set up in the prison where we could meet, read the newspapers “Scânteia” and “România liberă” and exchange opinions.

Once a week, a lecturer would come from somewhere to give us a lecture on a subject in order to familiarise us with the “new socialist reality”. (…)

I remember one very interesting incident.

One day a fat general, his uniform ready to burst, saw an old man in the prison yard.

– Old man, how long have you been in prison? he asked him.

– Twenty years, General!

– Well, old man, tell us tonight at the meeting what you’ve learned in these twenty years in prison!

By chance, the person in question was Mr. Bâră from Făgăraș.

We all got together in the evening and the general, who was in great need, told us:

– Today we present a man who has been in prison for twenty years. Let him tell us what he has learnt in these twenty years!

And Elder Bâră, modest as he was, said:

– I, General, have learnt a great deal.

– Tell us, old man, let us all hear!

– Well, gentlemen, I’ve learnt to choose the smallest piece of bread!

We immediately understood the meaning of his words. I don’t know how much the general understood, because he immediately shouted at him:

– Well… Get out of here!

The tone of Elder Bâră’s words was clear. Where hunger made you foolish and greedy, where greed took on monstrous forms and brought you mountains of pilaf and steaming plates of roasts in your imagination at night, you satisfied your cravings, chased away temptations and enjoyed a piece of bread or a polenta that you received, leaving the larger piece for others who were just as hungry. In other words, you remained humble. What a lesson of common sense!

(Nicolae Purcărea – Howl of the Pack…, ed. Foundation of Prison Saints, Pitești, 2012, pp. 240-242)