Blue pencil: I want to edit the world

I want to edit the world. Take my blue pencil, strike out February 24, 2022, put a line through Moscow and Putin, emphasize Ukraine in BOLD ALL CAPS, give it its own page, its own boundaries, insert ‘free from’ in front of invasion, replace tanks and guns with ‘flowers and cakes’, and edit out death altogether. 

I want the world to be other than it is.

I want big countries to make smaller footprints. I want the sun to warm not burn, the waters to refresh not drown, the air to be pure not polluted. I want babies to be loved, women to be honoured, men to be decent, all genders respected.

I want to edit the world so power becomes peace and destruction becomes love.

As the world — that I cannot edit — watches and marks one year this coming Friday — February 24 — since Putin invaded Ukraine, I am reminded that life is hard and harsh and horrid for so many. And, indeed, more so than any human should have to bear.

When I wrote A List for Leaving last March, I was naive believing that sentimental attachment to such inessentials as two lovely shot glasses would make it important that I take them along in my luggage when fleeing war. Now, one year into witnessing via newscasts the bloody horror of Putin’s invasion, I have revised my list. I offer it below as a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine and Ukrainians.

A revised LIST FOR LEAVING @ February 21, 2023

Eleven months later, I know more, feel more, understand better what truly matters…

• Yes, to electronics and documents; maybe one favourite book: possibly; maybe my Kindle but likely not as power will be hard to come by; my physical notebook and pens — but also pencils with a favourite sharpener, for the pencils will last longer than ink-fuelled pens
• Yes to clothes and to boots and to multiple socks for changing into when clean feet are but a distant memory

Beyond all this, what?

• A measure of hope that strangers will be kind and leaders wise, that the international community will not dither about rules and protocol but will, instead, send weapons that can make a difference, that ordinary people will donate money not once but many times, that humanitarian agencies will show up and stay, that heat and water won’t be weaponized and will be available, that winter won’t be too harsh, that spring will come, that flowers will bloom, that peace will come

How to pack all this in my bag?
How to bear it, any of it, all of it?
By carrying it in my heart,
With eyes wide open.
By never forgetting and

Always remembering.

I want to edit the world.

———
Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Sunflower photo by Johan Nilsson on Unsplash

Blue pencil photo by Brazil Topno on Unsplash