Three years in: Words and numbers paint the picture

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02.24.2022 / 02.24.2023
02.24.2023 / 02.24.2024
02.24.2024 / 02.25.2025
Today = 1,097 days since Putin invaded Ukraine

I have written about the invasion of Ukraine three times: just after it began, then on the first anniversary, then again on the second anniversary, and now again on the third anniversary. I wish this were not so. I wish there were no anniversaries of this horror. And, yet, here we are.

On March 14, 2022, I began with fortitude and naivety — and with “Lists for leaving”: For a long time, I have not watched the evening news. But these days, I am watching it every evening. The images compel me. I am not living them, so the least I can do is witness them...

On February 21, 2023, I moved to persistence and disbelief, wanting to “edit the world”: To 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...

On February 27, 2024, I progressed to resilience, and offered that “in dark times, we must sing”: and, yes, dark times can always get darker...

Yesterday, February 24, 2025, marked the beginning of a fourth year of suffering, and I sit squarely in anguish and horror. My New Year’s resolve is to focus on what is in front of me. To see clearly and to act accordingly. Thus, I write a fourth time to mark the war, to witness the suffering, to honour the people of Ukraine.

Words are all I have. They are, at once, nothing and everything, so I turn to the brilliantly clear thinker and writer Rebecca Solnit and her words. She highlighted three in her recently launched newsletter Meditations in an Emergency. She wrote — 

  • Comfort means to fortify (com- as in with; fort as in fortress, fortitude, and fortify), maybe to fortify with kindness
  • Kinship / Kind: the word kind is related to kin, as in kinship, family. Isn't kindness a recognition of kinship, fellowship, connection?
  • Courage — encourage literally means to instil courage [to en/courage]

Solnit has her writing hands full with what is going on in her home country of the USA (which is now 37 days in to the new Republican Administration, ever more zealous in its destruction of democracy's infrastructure), but the words she highlights apply to every human around the globe these days, don't they. Solnit wished her readers “...the fortress in comfort, the kinship in kindness, and the courage in encouragement, in both what you give and what you receive.” 

I send those same wishes to you — and to everyone facing adversity, large and small, in every corner of our world. 

Words are more than letters strung together; they are calls to action, they are marks of commitment. May we individually commit to actions for peace and for love. And may world leaders commit to the same.  

To be inspired into being courageous watch Jane Fonda's speech when she accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild on Sunday (Feb. 23, 2025). 

To be uplifted by a powerful song of protest, watch Canada's The Parachute Club sing Rise Up. 

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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.

Photo by chris robert on Unsplash

Comments

  1. Ann no eFebruary 25, 2025 at 4:37 AM

    Thank you ,Amanda

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2025 at 9:49 AM

    What a way to start the day! Love Jane Fonda and at age 81 I’m still doing the “Jane Fonda Workout”. She does keep me on my toes lol

    ReplyDelete

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