“War in Ukraine” by tkachukphoto is marked with CC BY-SA 2.0.
Letter from the Vineyard
March 30th, 2022
Let us do some thinking…
Upon waking, several times since I last wrote, I have looked out, found fog lilting through the still barren branches of trees in my yard, eerie, echoing English mysteries, morning island magic, the stuff of dreams, encouraging one to imagine, to settle into comforting thoughts while sipping morning coffee. It has been luscious.
This past Monday, the day dawned clear, sparkling though deeply chilly, a bright Vineyard winter morn as Persephone works her way from the underworld to the surface.
It was an easy day, store closed, a morning Zoom with a young friend in Mexico City, bringing internet to those who have never had it, contemplating marriage and fatherhood, a role Isaac will fill well. It caused me a smile when we closed down the Zoom, thinking him a father.
Lunch followed at the home of a friend, making wraps, talking, catching up on all the little things in between then and now.
One of the things we discussed was we’d both taken a break from the news for the last couple of days.
It’s bleak out there.
The Russians are pummeling the Ukrainians and are being pummeled back by the country they invaded, winning the Academy Award for most plucky nation since Britain in World War II, which still had an Empire behind it.
Russian troops are using open channels for communications [because their encrypted devices aren’t working] which then are being jammed by Ukrainians who break in once in a while to tell the Russians to go home before they become fertilizer.
Russian logistics seem broken, their soldiers dying, some deserting, knowing they can never go home, all of which creates fear Putin will pull out “strategic” nuclear weapons to break the log jam.
American evangelicals are saying Ukrainian events are the beginnings of the end times, which have been foretold so many times in my lifetime, I have lost count. Though this is as scary as the Cuban missile crisis when my father had to calm down a very scared little boy who thought the world was about to end.
Because I remember what it was to be a scared little boy, Edgartown Books is collecting money for a literacy foundation in Poland which is providing books in Ukrainian for the approximately one million Ukrainian refugee children there.
In 1962, books were a comfort to me; this seemed a very bookstore kind of thing for us to do. If you want to give, click here. Let them know, please, it was Edgartown Books sent you their way.
A Federal judge has said Trump “more likely than not” committed crimes in his efforts to overturn the election even as Trump continues to thump his chest at rallies, while declaring Putin “smart.”
Logs handed over to the House Committee show a more than seven-hour gap in his phone logs on January 6th. I accept that about as much as I did Rose Mary Woods and her 18-minute gap in the Watergate tapes.
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark…”
SCOTUS Judge Clarence Thomas’ wife encouraged Mark Meadows to fight to keep Trump in office, which has resulted in calls for him to recuse himself from anything to do with that day.
Speaking of SCOTUS, the Senate hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson were an embarrassment for both parties, Republicans especially. Josh Hawley, you have earned Big Daddy’s [“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”] award for mendacity.
Lindsey Graham, when did you check your intelligence at the door?
And Ted Cruz, fresh from having law enforcement called on him at a Montana airport [“Don’t you know who I am?”], has propelled Ibram X. Kendi’s book, “Anti-Racist Baby” back onto the bestseller’s list with his asking is a baby racist?
There are no kudos for the Democrats either, except, perhaps, Cory Booker, who acknowledged what a show it was. And confirmations have been a show since Clarence Thomas. Have we come full circle?
And, at the end of the day, it all circles back to Ukraine, where there is a real war with real human suffering, capturing our attention, reminding us of horror in a way nothing has, not Iraq, not Afghanistan, which should cause us to do some thinking.
War was not supposed to happen in Europe again like this…
Letter from the Vineyard 
Leave a Reply