Preparing for one f'ing thing after another

We are two weeks into a war a long way away, and I read the Guardian live blog to keep me up to date on what's happening. It feels very important to keep an eye on that, because this a serious conflict with more geopolitical consequences than the wars that have been going on all over the world for the past 20 years. 

A direct war with Russia terrifies me, and yet here we are, with that being the real and serious threat. Already this disruption to the usual is affecting commodity prices such as oil, and adds to the inflationary pressure that's already there as the world continues to wrestle with the pandemic. 

Just over three years ago I watched my English son in a play magnificently deliver a line with words that could put me in Facebook jail. So I'll put them in the comments. But to know I have family all across this globe and that I've been able to communicate with them easily has allowed my sense of humanity to grow. I am first generation American, and I have been the beneficiary of a hard-fought peace that wasn't always peaceful for everyone. 

But now I am alive and this is where we are, with one f'ing thing after another and what I thought was a laugh line delivered by my son was in fact a prescient warning. This was in a presentation of the History Boys by the Tring Youth Theatre Project. I saw it twice at a time in my life where I chose to travel to see my son as much as I could to see the person he was becoming. 

Two years ago or so I felt the calling to get back to who I am - someone who want to use as much time as possible to write and research what's happening. For many years I was paid to do it as a journalist, but took a break, and was out of time. But when the pandemic hit, I fell back on instincts and went to work reporting because I needed to have a base set of facts for myself. 

Now, I get paid to do the work again, based on that calling. I don't have time to question that anymore, because the world has changed and we are awake in history again. 

So here we are. The world is changing, fast, that's something that periodically happens. None of us have ever been through this before, but we've all been through tough times.

For me, none of mine approach what it's like to have bombs dropped on your house by a foreign force that wants to take over where you live and conquer it. A piece of civilization has broken down and the images of horror are something I must bear witness to. 

We all have histories that seem like they were tragic and awful, because they were. But more than ever I'm aware of a need to create the future by doing what I need to do to document as much as I can, every single day. 

That's the post. There's no big summing up. I just find that I need to write, and there's a place for me to write to people here. Maybe you need to write, too. Maybe you need to sing. Maybe you need to dance. Maybe you need to live!

I think I am. I hope I am. I strive to live.