I find myself living my life more these days. I don’t even know if I think about covid anymore. Even if it is still killing over 1,000 Americans a day, and while I am deeply troubled about the war in Ukraine I try not to let it darken my door. There are times when I feel bad for not feeling worse, and guilty for feeling good. My life isn’t bad. It is pretty good. I try and have empathy but in a world so large I am so small.
It is hard to keep caring. It takes energy to have empathy and sometimes the tank needs to be refreshed. It is like on airlines when they tell you to put on the mask before seeing to anyone else. If you can’t take care of yourself you won’t be able to take care of anyone else. There is also the factor of so much being out of our control.
The war in Ukraine is far away and ravaging the lives of people I have never and will never meet. I want the best for them. I want peace and other abstract concepts but they are fighting for their lives. If I think about it too deeply I become irritable and am not a pleasant person to be around.
I think my irritability comes from how powerless I am. I can’t help the people in Ukraine. I can’t get over there and if I did I’d be of no use. I have a cautious optimism about the situation in Ukraine. The world is horrified by the war. It feels like the first taste of true war in a long time. That is far from true but it feels like it. It could be how the media reports it. I am no expert in these matters.
All that is unimportant. The reaction to the war is a near universal feeling of being horrified. Of seeing what war is and never wanting to see it again. It would be nice if the world decided to never go to war again, but that won’t happen.
I saw reports that the Russian economy is on the verge of collapse and I thought how strange modern warfare is. Without firing a gun or sacrificing a soldier the world has brought Russia to its knees. Now they need to end hostilities and slink back across their border. Leave Ukraine alone.
I don’t think that should be the end of the punishments. Russia should have done themselves in with these action. See, there I go not caring. There are more innocents in Russia than aggressors. It is hard to make only those that deserve to pay pay. It is almost as hard as caring.
David Huzzard Writes 