There is a phrase I really like from Marilynne Robinson's novel Home: "miracles of thrift." In the book it is a cumulative, Protestant, productive thrift, that yields surpluses over time. So much Russian thrift seems, in contrast, desperate or futile, but in any case, women here are masters of the art. Our cleaning lady double-bags the trash, for example, for the walk downstairs to the dumpster, and then brings the second bag back up to the kitchen. Last night while we were out, Lena found an orphaned sock A. had thrown away and sewed up some pajamas for Lula's baby doll. Moscow takes a lot of expat criticism for providing no recycling opportunities (I've crabbed about this too) but really, there may be more of a genuine reduce/reuse culture here than anywhere we've lived.
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