3-7-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This aphorism has been attributed to, and claimed by, by many people. Likely first written by the Greek dramatist Aeschylus (550 BC), it strikes a universal chord. Yet for its wisdom, universally acknowledged, it seldom has guided those who could learn from its application, and routinely is shunned until the ashes of wars are sifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNine-tenths of wisdom is being wise at the proper time,\u201d Theodore Roosevelt famously said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, in the war raging on our TV and internet screens, and in the hearts and minds of the world, no less, the first and frequent casualties are truth once again. I am not referring to the most blatant examples \u2013 phony statistics, videos of carnage from a decade ago being presented as breaking news, the pledges of invaders being violated as the words are spoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These \u201ccasualties\u201d are too predictable, and might be outright propaganda or the result of well-intentioned confusion. In the \u201cfog of war,\u201d since these factors are common, I suggest \u2013 unless we are victims ourselves, in the midst of bombs dropping \u2013 that we ought to step back. If the issues and images are compelling (and they are), and if we can somehow influence events (as we must attempt), it is better that we exercise objectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can we be objective when we see hospitals destroyed and grandmothers \u2013 and grandchildren \u2013 crying? Choosing objectivity and seeking truth do not obviate concern, passion, sympathy, and grief. There is enough hatred playing out on our screens without choosing to filter every development through hatred of our own; to determine winners, losers, victims, aggressors, the past and the future\u2026 before the news report is over; and from 5000 miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My advice hardly will change things on the ground in Ukraine. But it might change things in our midst. Wars rage elsewhere; they do not need to rage in our hearts. If we cannot, by ourselves, immediately affect a war in Ukraine, we surely can, by ourselves indeed, affect wars that might rage in our own hearts. As a beginning, that would be nine-tenths of the proper time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brilliant Russian-born soprano Anna Netrebko was removed from the title role in the upcoming Turandot <\/em>production at the Metropolitan Opera; general manager Peter Gelb announced that it was unlikely that she would ever perform at the Met again. Her crime was failing to sign a statement repudiating her association with Vladimir Putin, despite her public announcement, \u201cI am opposed to this senseless war of aggression and I am calling on Russia to end this war right now, to save all of us. We need peace right now.\u201d Nevertheless she was fired from other engagements, or withdrew from many other opera companies around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I noted this situation, and a friend wrote that Anna was \u201cless than a human being.\u201d She did not raise a bazooka; rather raises her beautiful voice, and millions of dollars for charities, yet American haters can claim a victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remaining in her artistic field, I am reminded that violinist Isaac Stern vowed never to perform in Germany \u2013 former Nazi Germany, of course \u2013 yet Leonard Bernstein conducted in Munich and Vienna; and violinist Itzhak Perlman has performed in Berlin. Are they naive, insensitive, stupid? (Surely they are not secret Nazis!) What is the expiration-date, or other mitigating aspects, on hatred?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia seems to be employing cluster-bombs and other instruments of mass destruction: worthy of war-crime prosecution. TV’s red areas on maps of Ukraine spread every hour, like blood on the carpet from a murdered corpse. The scenes we behold make me wonder if we might see incendiary bombs (those that cause widespread fire, sucking the air from peoples\u2019 lungs over wide sections of a city), possibly killing upwards of a hundred thousand people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 yet that happened, at least once before in history. Two months before World War II ended, the \u201cart city\u201d of Dresden, without defenses because it was a city of museums and no factories or barracks (in fact having become a city of hospital beds for refugees) was ordered fire-bombed by Winston Churchill. If England had lost the war, he would have been regarded as a war criminal, and even so within two decades some his pilots defied their orders never to discuss that atrocity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Am I playing \u201cDevil\u2019s Advocate\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Precisely the opposite. What is missing these days \u2013 and many of the days when wars rage \u2013 is people who will play \u201cGod\u2019s Advocate.\u201d Where are those voices? I don\u2019t mean charitable groups like Samaritan\u2019s Purse: God bless the dangerous and heroic and loving work of Christian organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I refer to the consequential players, and, yes, each of us at a distance, if we can pray and act and influence the policymakers. Can we search for perspective first<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is<\/em> right and wrong; there is<\/em> good and bad. There are monsters among us. Some of them might even call themselves Christians. There are reports (I don\u2019t know<\/em>, yet reports are numerous and long-standing) that Putin, in his public adherence to the Russian Orthodox Church, shares the vision of the Moscow Patriarch that all of \u201cMother Russia\u201d be restored. No matter the cost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I (knowing something of history) have a little hope, a little fantasy. In 1905 the forces of the Czar were suppressing protests all throughout Russia. In the port city of Odessa, Ukraine, sailors finally mutinied against their officers in bloody clashes. It was a spark that eventually led to the overthrow of the Czar. There are reports (can we believe the videos?) that anti-war demonstrations are taking place in a hundred Russian cities; that prominent citizens and celebrities have criticized the invasion; that many companies have refused to do conduct any more business with Russia; that Russians overseas have sacrificed some positions and privileges in protest\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Odessa redux? Can we hope? Can we pray? Can we act?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we see our enemies not as madmen but, perhaps, horribly delusional and even evil human beings, we can find our way to confront this awful world better. We can pray, and seek God, with clarity. We need His wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s wisdom, after all, is reliable ten-tenths of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n if you are using a portable device (phone or pad) then click:<\/span>
this link<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n