Volodymyr Zelensky: Hope in a time of seeming world calamity in Daydreaming on the Porch

But as the Russian bombs began to fall on Ukrainian cities and troops moved to surround the capital, the President underwent a transformation. Before our eyes he came to embody a struggle that most Western statesmen had long forgotten how to fight, the one that is sometimes required to keep tyranny from killing off democracy. Zelensky not only rallied his own people to defend their nation, inspiring them to toss petrol bombs at Russian military vehicles and stand in the way of tanks. He also galvanized the world’s democracies in ways that seemed unthinkable just a week before.

Time Magazine


Yes, as the hellish military firepower of Russia began to be unleashed on Ukraine, the supernatural courage and resolve of the country’s President in the face of a barbaric invasion, has united his people and inspired them to resist the even when or if the country is occupied by Putin and the Russian Federation. The free world is doing more to help Ukraine every day.

I never thought I’d live to see another World War, but that’s what the invasion of Ukraine is shaping up to be, or foreshadow it very soon.

That war is already upon us. It will be a military conflagration in Ukraine. Elsewhere around the world there will be economic, psychological, and mental health shocks as this terrible war by Putin comes on the keels of the pandemic. There will be and already are humanitarian crises, cyber warfare, wars of information versus misinformation, war crimes, and global disruption of everyday life on the planet.

As I rushed about doing my errands this afternoon — getting my car back after some major repairs; filling up the car with gas (the price had gone up 40 cents a gallon in just two days); going to the bank to get cash in the event cyber warfare takes down parts of the electric grid; and compulsively reading news updates on the war, life seemed to be swirling around me in a state of complete normalcy. What on earth are people on the street thinking now? Is the world order as we know it about to change dramatically? Am I over-reacting and bei g my own worst fear monger? Has the last week, and two years of the pandemic, brought me perilously close to the edge of despondency?

“There will be much worse to come,” French President Macron said alarmingly following a 1 1/2 hour phone call with Putin. This after Putin days before had out his nuclear arms on high alert. To anyone who grew up in the Cold War era and remember the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, those actions by Putin and his Orwellian double-speak are truly chilling to the bone. As if the pandemic weren’t surreal enough, this is turning out to be even more surreal. Add to this mix the rapidly appearing weather and climate changes due to global warming and it’s easy to become numb.

Notice how this is all having eerie parallels with the beginnings of both World War I and World War II. I’m thankful there are historians out there to explain the big picture, because it’s obvious that leaders of the free world and entire countries and their populations have forgotten many of the lessons of history. Today, there’s much more at stake, and it’s frightening.

Last updated March 04, 2022