The War Just Got A Little Closer

 It's a tiny thing. It's about a bunch of tiny things. But I just "found out" I have a connection to the Ukriane war.

I've been thinking about ordering some new beads, since some I recently bought to use in jewelry are both selling well and making great gifts. The beads are tiny glass ones, rosebuds, more defined and realistically shaped than the first flower beads I bought, more dainty and delicate than the second large batch I bought. The sales have been doing well enough I thought I'd like to stock up more on a very particular bead along with very similar ones in slightly different colors from the same seller. I've done some "window" shopping, if that term applies to online shopping, where one can put things in their "shopping cart' to be a reminder of what they want in the future, a direct connection to the source selling it, and where one can go back at will and order.

Today was going to be that day. I have a seller who is top on my list of providing the best of its kind, at least so far as I've found. I pulled up the cart, and "this item is unavailable" pops up in red letters. OK, well, I was open to buying from half a dozen more varieties from that shop. The next one said the same. And the next. All the way down the list.

Finally, there was a note on his site that informs his potential customers that he is unable to make beads right now, nor ship them. His shop is closed. It's in Ukraine. And he's gone to fight for his country. It is dated two days ago.

I haven't felt quite so foolish in a while. Of course I knew in the dim dark recesses of my mind where those beads came from. I'd tracked the previous order, though it only registered locations when it departed London on its way to Los Angeles. But the packaging, once here, listed Ukraine as its origin. I forget what part, exactly, not thinking to pay attention, not thinking it mattered that I had a connection, however trivial, with someone over there, not even exactly sure then where it was located in relation to everything else. And of course the wrapping is long gone. After all, I still had the information to connect for another order. What more did I need? Except maybe to give a thought that I knew of somebody involved in that war right now.

He is an exquisite artist. Now he's a soldier. I can only hope he has a chance to be an artist again. This little corner of the world has just gotten a reminder that war is about all the human beings involved in it, not just the refugees, the bombed out apartments, the weapons used, the video shown on TV, the opinions of the world in reaction. Every person involved in it has an individual life, individual dreams, an individual family, and leaves behind an individual mark upon this world. I can only hope that he and others like him don't have to just leave it all.