Friday 25th Feb, which became Monday 28th Feb—On Being Woke—Rabbit Holes—and War.

I’ve begun this week’s blog three times now, as you can see from the title. The first was turning into a thesis and heading towards 10,000 words, the second was positively trivial, though fine for a general feelgood kinda blog post and finally, in view of world events I have decided to dedicate this blog post to the people of Ukraine. Although it will not really be of any practical help.

I had a pretty shit week, I got a bit deep in the bottle, and even missed my Friday deadline, but I don’t feel sorry for myself, only annoyed that I gave in to my weaknesses and didn’t achieve as much as I had aimed for. Compared to the Ukraine/Putin situation it is nothing, a blip, nothing to get my great big Bridget Jones’s in a twist about. 

I can offer nothing except my voice to the sadness and anger that I feel and that I share with most of the World. Sadness for the people who have done nothing wrong and only want to live their lives with dignity and democracy and anger at Putin and his cronies who have taken this aggressive stance on a country that was just going about its daily business.

I scream at the TV, “why in God’s name now!? Why??”

We have just got through two years of a global pandemic that has ravaged businesses and mental health in equal parts and we were just wondering if we would ever get our lives back to some sort of normalcy and now this.

Humans really are a scourge to this planet and yet on the other hand you have people who are so kind and so selfless that it makes you weep. Grown men and women who give their lives for the freedom of others and even children who do remarkable things for their fellow men or fellow children or fellow pets. I wish I were so selfless, I have no excuse, though in my defence I do donate blood—my little bit to help.

If I believed in a God, I would be praying, but instead, I stand here wishing and hoping with all my heart that Putin would just give up and stop this senseless war, NOW!

There is so much going through my brain, and I really don’t know what more to say about this terrible situation in Ukraine, except that I abhor aggression and violence and simply cannot understand how one regime can do something like this to another country. It is an act so selfish that will rob the lives of many thousands before it is over, and perhaps it will do more damage than that. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

To justify my week in some way I did do a little drawing of wheat growing strong in a Ukrainian field under a clear blue sky, and yes, the poppies are for the blood being spilled.

I raise my voice and join with others who say “NO, WAR, PLEASE!”