Half the population of Kyiv now refugees

Refugees in large numbers are not new --hello Syria, hello, Afghanistan, hello, South Sudan, hello, DRC-- but the speed at which the number of Ukrainian refugees has risen is devastating. Two million people as of last night's NPR news, half of them children. And this morning in the newspapers and their websites, the news that half the population of Kyiv is now displaced. That's half of the capital city, a city of close to three million inhabitants. Think of the most populous city of your state (or country if you are not a continent-wide country like the US or Canada or Australia) and half the population fleeing on short notice, in less than two weeks. The other half in a makeshift fortress city watching for enemy armies. The mind boggles. The heart races, or nearly stops.

From The Guardian today:

Russia-Ukraine war latest news: half of Kyiv population has fled, mayor says; Turkey talks end without progress on ceasefire

I will shortly post in the comments to this post the names and website info of reliable aid organizations. 

Stanislav, 40, says goodbye to his son David, 2, and his wife Anna, 35, on a train to Lviv at Kyiv's railway station in Ukraine on March 3, 2022. Stanislav is staying to fight while his family is leaving to seek refuge in a neighboring country. #

Emilio Morenatti / AP

What doesn't make the top of the news

I find it quite extraordinary that this item, which leads the BBC headlines, does not lead in the U.S. We are so distracted by our internal battles (which are, admittedly, nasty and getting nastier --and frightening) that we have not noticed this major step in foreign policy. Fifteen years ago this would have been major news.

I know. It's far from enough. But this administration is moving the previously frozen. I don't think most of us realize how significant this is.

All numbers are estimates because exact numbers are top secret.

Strategic nuclear warheads are designed to target cities, missile locations and military headquarters as part of a strategic plan.

Additional comments on map here.

Aleksandr Isayevitch Solzhenitsyn, R.I.P.

Thank Godde for friends who say things better than we can and have more time to say it. My friend Chris has posted a photo of and tribute to the writer Solzhenitsyn, who has just died.

Let me take this opportunity to introduce Chris's new blog, the Gifts of God. You can read a bit about Chris, in his own words, here.

Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints:
where sorrow and pain are no more;
neither sighing but life everlasting.
Thou only art immortal,
the creator and maker of man:
and we are mortal formed from the dust of the earth,
and unto earth shall we return:
for so thou didst ordain,
when thou created me saying:
"Dust thou art und unto dust shalt thou return."
All we go down to the dust;
and weeping o'er the grave we make our song:
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

From the Orthodox Memorial Service
Trans. W. J. Birkbeck (1869-1916)

It's also in our Episcopal Hymnal to the tune of a Kievan chant -- wish there were a better link than this midi, but you can sing along - or point me to a choral version somewhere online.

July 7: birthday of Marc Chagall (and of beloved nephew)

Today is the birthday of the Russian-French painter Marc Chagall, one of my favorite artists.

I have a small lithograph of the above in my study. (Back in the 1970s, you could find 'em cheap in a French art magazine called Derrière le Mirroir.)

Chagall is not all flowers and flights of fancy. The painting below, "White Crucifixion," was occasioned by his reflection on the Shoah (Holocaust) and the decades of persecution and pogroms suffered by Chagall's Jewish neighbors and kin in his native Russia.

One also wonders whether the story of the Jewish artist in Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev (am I remembering the right book?) and his use of crucifixion as a symbol in his painting was in any way inspired by Potok's viewing of this painting. Just a speculation, but it's possible.

Today is also, by happy coincidence, the birthday of Nephew the Younger, who is 35 years old!

(Brother of Acts of Hope, father of Nephew the Elder and Nephew the Younger, is a decade older than his baby sister, Ms. Acts of Hope here, which accounts for the adult nephews.)

Nephew the Younger, to the delight of everyone in the family, is in the wine biz. Alas, he lives in Italy (and is not to be confused with Nephew the Elder, who lives in Portugal) so it's a little hard for Auntie Jane R to bop on over and mooch freebies from him. He is also a cat person and Her Grace Maya Pavlova and I have sent him love and feline vibrations on this auspicious day.

And a couple more...

This next one is part of Chagall's series inspired by the Song of Songs.