An Insightful Revisit

For having not slept all night, I crawled out of bed in a good mood. RLS – ugh. I’ve been down with the flu or covid (doesn’t matter which – either or it passed through the house like a fire ant after water. Me first. Then everyone else… one by one.) 3 days on my back. This third night was tough because my legs needed to ‘go’ but my lungs refused to do anything beyond wheeze.

Since I couldn’t sleep, I caught up on my TikTok ‘friends’ – all things Ukrainian. It has been months since I scrolled through the political monologues. I miss them.

I stopped on one particular video montage of President Zelensky at the Holocaust survivors’ ceremony commemorating 80 years since the Auschwitz liberation. (SirHenry_Zelensky 01-27) Despite his short stature Zelensky presented himself as the honorable leader whose compassion for the ordinary suffering citizen lifts him far above other leaders and the crowd. He stood in the reception line, pausing to laugh with an elderly woman, stopping mid sentence with one person to take a selfie with another, stopping the flow of the line to discuss something of importance with an older rabbi.

My immediate reaction was pride – to have chosen this man to follow, a man who wears his integrity on his sleeve. (I am not stupid. Every day I pray he really is who he appears to be because I have put so much of my heart into the cause of his people. I would not want to be betrayed. People remind me that he was an a actor, that this is just a game. What high stakes this game is, then.)

“How did we build our houses?
When you’re standing under winter skies,
and the heavens turn and sail away,
you know you’ve got to live somewhere you aren’t afraid to die.” Serhiy Zhadan

It was either on TikTok or Twitter (X) that I was first introduced to Zhadan. He posted that he was about to enlist. I felt obligated to buy as many of his books that had been translated into English as my way of joining him in his fight for freedom, that which he wrote about, that which he now was willing to give everything for. A far better human and artist than I ever could imagine to be.

“All those who defended this city
will come out to its walls
and call after the bad weather
that fell on the shoulders of their dead:”

Indeed, what high stakes this game is then.

I have read The Russo-Ukrainian War by Serhii Plokhy and The Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder, as well as both books on The Revolution of Dignity by Mychailo Wynnyckyj. I am no expert on Ukrainian history but I have had a taste of their past. Indeed, what high stakes this game is then.

Oh my…there is a flurry of activity above me, feet scurrying across the floor. It’s after 9:00AM and they are all late for school and work. Mondays!

I know I have gotten sidetracked in my passion for the Ukrainian people and this unjust invasion that the rest of the world seems to think acceptable. It is not! Just so that we are not confused! To my shame, I cannot see my own president embracing the human race as Zelensky is portrayed, though in fact every leader of every country should be so empathetic for the people they are obligated to protect.

With USAID frozen…

With $100 billion worth of humanitarian aid and munitions promised but never sent, now under Trump will never be sent…

With grants frozen the free media in Ukraine near collapsing…

With North Korea and China upping their military game…

With European politics swaying toward unknown Russian politicians winning seats of power…

But the world is so senselessly chaotic all of a sudden. God’s hand must be in it. We couldn’t have moved these political chess pieces like this on our own.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;” (Proverbs 3:5)

What else can we do?