How would you react if called to serve?
Everyone who has been following war events in Ukraine has this country and its people in our minds. There is a heroism and solidarity there that keeps me coming back to the news reports again and again. The David and Goliath story from ancient times is being evoked. He was a shepherd kid with a sling shot going against a nine-and-a-half foot bully in full body armor armed with a sword.
There's a hunger for the brave “little guy” to win. For the “mean guy” to be taken down. Something in the human spirit rises with those who rise up against injustice. Who protect and defend — even when it can steal the one thing we care about—our own breath.
A family memorial over the weekend exposed me to the universal brotherhood of those who face Goliath. Our son-in-law's father was a Navy vet, having seen combat duty in Vietnam, and also a retired lieutenant with the Spokane Fire Department. His fellow firefighters showed up with stories to tell on “Tater.” He loved his potatoes — and at the reception they were served baked with his chili recipe to top them.
There were no dry eyes when it came time for the firefighter's bell ceremony send off — the clear striking of the bell three times each in a series of three — and then a pair of bagpipers playing, “Amazing Grace”. Afterward I told my husband — these guys are such a brotherhood because they choose to face the grim realities of death and danger and loss — no matter the cost.
Everyone of them who signs up is signing up his or her life — for the good of people they don't even know. Whether it's military, police, firefighters, search and rescue — any career that holds the possibility of this kind of sacrifice any day you show up — there is a bond forged those on the “outside” cannot know.
It's what I am seeing in Ukraine. Only for some it isn't even career choice. It's fathers and mothers and grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and sons and daughters. A long line picking up weapons, learning to shoot, sabotaging, fighting, sacrificing — for themselves, their families. And for that nebulous word — the “future.”
Future happens out ahead, but it's a baton race. One individual, one group, one generation, one people — depending on who is running the race, handing the baton to another. And the baton is always now.
The “big now” has come to Ukraine. Battling every way they know. Including on their knees on the hard ground in prayer — sometimes the most arduous battle of all. Their president is leading the charge — something like America's first president George Washington, mentioned last week. He, too, is fearless — fighting for freedom.
The Ukrainian people who refuse to back down before Russia's aggression — even at the cost of their lives — are a brotherhood only those who have done it, and are doing it, can fathom. Their passion and courage prompt a question that has reverberated in my mind like rocket fire all week.
What would I do?