As I watch the news and images coming out of Ukraine, I have experienced a grip holding to my heart that has been impossible to shake and even hard to comprehend. Grasping so tightly it has been hard for me, not only to ignore, but to focus on much else. Even as I hold our son in my arms, I hold him tighter, thinking of every mother, every father, every child, every life, amid the devastations and the dangers of war; who’s life and future way in the balance. I hold my son tighter because I know that his future, too, ways in the balance of this gut wrenching and reprehensible war. Because I know it will change the world as we know it, as he will know it, and as we all will live in it; unlikely for the better and almost certainly for worse, for generations to come.
Yet, it is with all my heart, my hopes, and my prayers, that somehow it could be for better. But how do we see better from such a bitter and brutal assault on humanity? How do we find good in the face of such senseless grief? What will it take to see beauty arise from the ashes? To see better come from the brokenness of such a fractured and falling world? To even think the thought of this inhumane act of terror turning into something that could leave us “better” in the end?
It is the words often quoted and ring true in the fight for freedom, that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing.” Nothing, however, cannot simply be defined as silence. Nor the absence of support. It is the absence of our own soul searching, our own self-reflection; it is the selfish and self-centered cry of our flesh that says it doesn’t affect me. It is the absence of acknowledgment of our shared human experience and therefore an unwillingness to look deep within ourselves and do the work to extract out of ourselves the ugliness that lies within each of us.
It is hate manifested within our own borders, cities and towns because of politics and policy differences. Bigotry often rooted in ignorance or family history, and an undeniable unwillingness to put ourselves in another’s shoes. To say I’m sorry for the mistakes of former generations or to own our own. It is the grips of un-forgiveness and resentment that breeds the base in which war like this is built. It is the divisive and hateful speech spewed from our politicians and elected officials, that numb us into the submission of thinking such things are okay or the norm we now accept. It is the pursuit of power over love, financial gain over the greater good, and an inability and unwillingness to see that we all share this one great human experience; and that within it, there is far more that binds us together than that which divides us.
You see it is up to each of us, to make a choice; a choice marked by this moment in history, shaping the outcome and future of this collective world in which we live. We can choose to be changed by this moment. To be transformed by the trauma that we see and the times in which we are living through. We can choose to be the better that comes from this brutal assault on humanity. The good that comes out of an entire nation’s grief. To be the beauty that rises out of the ashes of devastation.
We can choose to become better. Better by becoming the greatest version of ourselves, not in personal gain, but in personal sacrifice. In the kindness we shower upon those that we know and the strangers we encounter. The dignity we grant those whom we do not understand. In the respect we give those with whom we do not agree. In the safety we offer those who may look different than us and the acceptance we grant those who believe different than us. We become better in the love that we leave with others and by building a legacy that reflects such love. It is knowing and holding a deep reverence for this very undeniable truth; that in EVERY single human interaction we share with another, we will make a deposit or a withdrawal into the life of the other. We become better by choosing to make deposits, no matter the differences that stand between us. Our souls are elevated when we elevate the life and soul of another; it is in this choice that the human spirit soars.
So as the people of the Ukraine fight a war they did not provoke, nor ask for; As the world's leaders navigate the undeniable line, of aid and support, in which to cross could mean effects of catastrophic proportions; As the great majority of the world, including the bravery of thousands standing in defiance in Russia, unite in its support of the Ukrainian people and the call for peace; Let each of us take inventory of the lives that we live and the future in which we wish to step into. Let us step boldly and bravely into the days to come, with a renewed sense of our shared humanity and the world in which we shall live. Let each of us play a part in deescalating the daily divisions evil intends to use to divide us, only sowing seeds into future conflict and catastrophe. And instead let us sow seeds that sprout from the ashes of this assault, into an undeniable harvest of love, kindness, patience, compassion, hope and care for our fellow man. It is how each of us, no matter where we are, may fight alongside our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. As they fight, with the heart and spirit of David, for the future existence of their nation; Let us fight in this way, for the future existence of a better world.