The Story of the Universe
Three Books of Yan
About Yan
I was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1966, when it was still the capital of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. I left that socialist dictatorship with my family as a refugee, when I was 12. We travelled through Austria, Italy and obtained political asylum in Canada. The difference in freedom was so palpable then that I could breathe it. It’s not anymore, as the socialist ideology that created and destroyed the Soviet Union has slowly and inexplicably taken root in the West.
After graduation from high school, I travelled through Holland, Belgium, France, Israel and Egypt, where I bought a medallion of Maat, the Goddess of Truth, that I still wear.
I studied philosophy and then Law. Upon graduation, I travelled through Japan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
After being called to the bar, I bought a one-way ticket to Kathmandu, and traveled through Nepal, India, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Israel. I then returned to Canada and started practicing law.
During my 20s, I began having various disparate ideas or inspirations that I wrote down and that eventually became a collection that I called The Fire Sea of Wonder, or Half-Truths: Philosophic Poems in Prose. One of these ideas then grew into a treatise called The Emergence of Value Out of Chaos.
In my early 30s, I became disillusioned with law, and went back to University to get my Master’s. The first two chapters of the Emergence of Value became my Master’s thesis. I wanted to use the rest of the treatise for my Ph.D., but I was told that I would have to use a topic given to me instead. Since I was already doing what I did not want to do for a living, I did not want to do it for less, so I continued practicing law.
I continued to travel and altogether have visited over 60 countries.
I have been happily married for over 20 years.
