Service

If you’re watching news of the possible impending Russian invasion of Ukraine, and wondering “what can I do,” listen carefully to that thought. Don’t push it away. Pull on that string.

We live in, historically speaking, peaceful times. We haven’t had an all-out war in a while. 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq were present in your life, but these were specific wars, with specific places and specific people. A specific war is the worst type of war when it comes to questioning one’s thoughts on service. It’s too easy, too specific, for it not to affect you.

We haven’t had a general war like our grandparents had. A classic war.

What would you do if we did? If we had a war that was so un-specific, un-targeted, un-isolated? Would you act? Would you be forced to act?

Maybe when you were younger, you daydreamed of being a GI Joe, but haven’t seriously — seriously — considered what it means to drop your job and serve the country. You know some vets, maybe a civil servant or two, and think “good for them.” You support our military but you can’t exactly pinpoint and articulate why (because I’m supposed to?), because in our lifetimes they haven’t fought a general war, but instead a series of specific wars.

But if the thought of a Russian invasion of Ukraine — by all accounts a war of choice — revolts you, makes you lose your appetite even for just a few minutes, if it stirs up some rage: listen to these thoughts.

Why does the thought of impending war in Ukraine bother you? Maybe it’s a sense of injustice, or a disgust at the idea of watching what’s already a torn canvas of a country being splashed with more blood. Maybe you have a Ukrainian grandmother. I don’t know. I can’t answer it, I’m just asking you to think about it. If this specific war were to become a general war, what happens then?

Ask yourself, too, what service means to you. When we’re on the doorstep of war, do you want to be a passerby? Can you be a stoop-sitter while the house is burning?