March 5, 2022
At fifty-six, I am still not well-versed in world politics or the world of politics. And there would be still less in my repertoire in which I could add in the way of insight or military brilliance.
I am here, Wisconsin USA, driving to work, caring for my family – all the usual gyrations of life. Sure, those normal expenses are now beyond inflation but I rarely think about a lessened supply.
I do not worry of availability of groceries. I wait in a minimal length line to check out, if I need to wait at all.
But I play the mind game of what I would do, if I were ‘king of the world.’ What would I do if I was President?
Would I send my son’s generation into war? No. Dearest Ukraine, I could not send my children into war.
But I think I could send every drone in the face of the earth to blow up resupply truck tires. I think I could do a lot of activity along those same thoughts.
But what is enough? What response by other nations will cause an attacking country to retreat? Perhaps the most compelling is a scintillating cyber war, anonymous to anonymous.
Sigh. I wish I was so clever.
What do I do? I color a piece of my world yellow and blue.
Two days after I began this post, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, at Zaporizhzhia, flamed as a consequence of Russian forces invading the location with gunfire.
An alarm hit my soul. No longer did I fear for the drafting of sons and daughters into a world war. I dread the thought of the next generation cleaning up a nuclear mess. “Madness,” I thought to myself. What leader would possibly risk the world for power and retribution?
What leader would risk the lives of millions?
Hours later it been reported that the fires had been extinguished. The reactors are intact. NATO has determined that such an action is a crime of war.
The idea of war and the reality of its birth are stunning. I am contented that my realities are concerns of buildings’ roof drains and refrigerators’ ice makers. I am discontented at the thought that others cannot share in such concerns. Through no action of their own making, their households are packed into plastic sacks.
And they must flee their homes.
I will never understand those humans who choose hatred and bullish behavior over decency and humanity. Or, even more so, I do not understand the interjection of those of bullish-type temperaments into lives of those who have no intersection into their bullring.
Why? Why the madness? Why the cruelty? And what really is the answer?
I think it is time to find out why.
For now, my beginning is the coloring of a special building in the colors of a country thousands of miles away. May all Ukrainians know the safety of a building, the love of neighbors and the beauty of humankind.
May they find the peace of a home which will always be safe.
With love, Luv….Stephanie
Stephanie Springborn 