Pacifism not so black and white

Remembrance Day has caused me much internal conflict throughout my life. It was good to commemorate those who were brave enough to die for a country, but at the same time I was a firm believer that war was wrong. 

Born into a Mennonite household and community, pacifism was upheld as the highest ideal. To take up arms is wrong. Traditionally, Mennonites interpret the New Testament as the fulfillment of God’s will, ultimately demonstrated through Jesus, who called not for violence but for peace. The Mennonite interpretation of “turn the other cheek” and “pray for your enemies” was taken literally. Other commands to give all your money away to the poor... well... we’ll talk about that another day. 

I’m conflicted because I live in a peaceful country where the military isn’t front and centre. We all know NATO will come to our defense if attacked (hopefully). And at the personal level, we all know the police will come to our aid if ever we were physically attacked. 

But what if they didn’t? The hypothetical situation, where your house is invaded by thugs and you happen to have a gun, was one I never shied away from. I wouldn’t use the gun, I claimed. However.... I might use a hypothetical shovel instead – to you know, bash the guy’s head in, but never fatally. That’s okay, right? Especially if he’s threatening my wife and children, right? 

There are clearly more greys and less black and white the more scenarios you run. A real-time scenario for me right now is the situation in Ukraine. 

When it comes to Ukraine, there’s no question they are being attacked unjustly. Russia invaded their country and soldiers are literally invading their homes. Just yesterday, a 15-year-old girl from Kherson said she was taken by the Russians and threatened to have her fingers cut off if she didn’t tell them where the Ukrainians were hiding. She thought for sure she would be raped. 

Torture, rape, and indiscriminate killings have played out across Ukraine for the last nine months. Any normal person should be outraged. So much so, one might be willing to join the fight, like the 33-year-old man from Herbert who recently died as a volunteer with the Ukrainian forces. 

As Mennonites, the only option in many cases was to flee oppression. That was the way out. Find a better country like Canada, Mexico or Paraguay. But what if there’s nowhere to flee to – or if you don’t want to flee your family and home? 

My grandfather abandoned his pacifist beliefs to volunteer in the military during World War II. He was fortunate he didn’t experience battle – the war was over before he was sent to Europe... or just as he was about to jump out of a plane... the story keeps changing. He always spoke of his time in the army with positivity, even though he ended up renouncing his military participation to be accepted back into his church. 

My other grandfather didn’t have to fight because he was farming at the time, but he may have applied as a conscientious objector if he had been called upon. His refusal to fight may have come as a combination of his personality and beliefs. 

In the past, I would have been the same way, but today I’m more conflicted. I prefer peace, but at the same time, I’m of the firm belief that oppression needs to be fought. Sometime violence is unavoidable. I can’t see Hitler falling without his army falling first. I like Ghandi for what he did for India through peaceful non-resistance, but an argument can be made that it would have never worked against Nazi Germany. 

As talk of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal comes up again in the news, one wonders how many of us would be so willing to negotiate after over 100,000 Ukrainian casualties (likely far more), untold humanitarian horrors, and forced occupation of one’s homeland? 

I can’t see any of us agreeing to a stalemate, especially when you’re dealing with a ruthless despot. Typically, they don’t stop until their power is stripped from them. 

Peace will come, but for now, the fight must continue. 

 

Cat therapy a waste of money

  

We’ve tried to make our cat kinder and gentler: to not threaten our bird with its gaze; to not jump onto its cage; to not tear it to shreds when it escapes. Yelling and punishment – typically, solitary confinement in the basement – have had little to no effect.  

If only there was some kind of cat therapy to overcome her most innate desires; to stop her from ripping into our bedspread or dining room chairs. As it stands, I’m forced to conclude our cat does not understand the difference between right and wrong. She is inherently immoral.  

Correction: she's amoral – meaning she is indifferent to human morality. Ironically, it’s this indifference that gives her a distinct advantage over humans.  

Cats do not worry or despair. Every day offers its own joys and dull routine, but that is all. There is no pent-up anxiety about what the day will hold. The living room window offers limitless screen time of nature’s docudrama: birds, squirrels, and the occasional visitation by the neighbor’s cat. Sleep, eat, prey on something... and the cycle continues. 

Our cat is housebound, upon recommendation of the humane society from which we adopted her. As much as cats love to be free, they may get themselves into trouble when on the loose. Like the cat that somehow entered our garage the day we left on vacation. If not for our observant neighbour, the cat may have died of thirst. As for food, I’m sure there were enough mice... Which brings up another element of their immoral nature: playing with their food before eating it!? 

After such a harrowing experience, one would think the cat would have learned its lesson and never come visit us again. Yet the cat came back, looking for a place to have her kittens.  

Rest assured, this cat finally found its owner – or shall I say, her human host. Like a parasite, cats get what they want from us, then leave. 

There are but a few precious moments in the day when our cat returns our affection. In particular, before feeding, when I peal the top off her canned food, I feel her body rub against my leg. The wet food gets plopped in her dish (some on her head) and then it’s over. She sniffs it and leaves. Maybe later.  

Despite their lack of human characteristics, cats can teach us much about the human condition. According to John Gray, they may even offer us new insight into healthy living. In his book, Feline Philosophy, he writes that “cats do not need to examine their lives, because they do not doubt that life is worth living.” 

So true. Rarely have I heard of a cat committing suicide.  

He goes on: “The human animal never ceases striving to be something that it is not,” whereas “cats make no such effort. Cats are happy being themselves, while humans try to be happy by escaping themselves.” 

If you’ve been on Facebook, you’ll know this to be true. Cats are on Facebook, too, I suppose, but they tend not to post their best selves. If anything, it’s their most embarrassing moments, all for our amusement. 

And unlike a dog, a cat makes no such effort to comply with human expectations. When eating off the dining room table, our cat shows no shame or remorse. Yet we do not deem her to be a sociopath. We expect nothing less than to see her commit the same misdemeanors every single day. 

To perhaps encourage her even more, we throw a party for her every week by hosting Laundry Day. In a cat’s life, there is nothing more splendid than pile after pile of warm clothing and bedsheets to sit on and hide under. Her giddiness lasts for a couple hours before she retreats for a six-hour afternoon nap. This is followed by supper, some cuddling, then her nine-o'clock romp. 

All a day's work in the life of a cat. How I wish ours was so simple. 

 

Stuff happens at 45

“I’m 45 years old, man. There’s a lot of sh— going on. Just gotta figure out life the best you can.” 

Tom Brady, 2022 NFL Preseason 

 

Like Tom (I’d like to think we’d be on a first-name basis), I turn 45 this year. 

Tom and I have a lot in common, other than the Hall of Fame football career. We’re about the same height (give or take a few inches), same body build (give or take a few pounds of muscle) and at the same midlife threshold (give or take a couple months). 

 Tom has become more than a (pretend) friend of mine over the years... He’s become my hero. At 45, he should be in the proverbial NFL senior’s home, nursing arthritic limbs in salt baths for hours every day.  

Instead, he’s out chucking footballs in the fiercest sports league of our time. He looks anything but aged. Unlike Peyton Manning, who could barely lift his hand above his shoulder by age 40, or Brett Favre, who got carried off the field at age 41, Tom looks like a spry 39-year-old, ready to prove everyone wrong... again. 

I can venture a guess as to why Tom wants to keep playing. In his 40 days (and nights) of “retirement” last spring, he realized what was on the other side. The loss of career. The loss of purpose. The uncertainty of what lies ahead. What will I do with my spare time? Should I pick up a hobby? Are these really my kids? 

We’ll steer clear of his family life for a moment, even though it became an issue in the preseason. Someone significant in his life was obviously not in favour of him padding his already phenomenal football statistics. Her name is Gisele and she’s left him – for the moment – but again, it’s not my place to comment... 

Other than to say, Tom, you’ve reached middle age. Like the Middle Ages of history, it can be dark. There are no easy answers. You will have to eventually come to terms with your mortality... The death of your football career. 

You’ve had your share of ups and downs. Like the time you deflated those footballs to get a better grip – that was definitely a low point. Then you left your one and only football team to start over at age 42. Who would have thought, one year later, you’d be lifting the Lombardi trophy high up in the air with another team? You’re too good, for your own good. 

Now you don’t know when to quit. You’re tempting fate – a career ending injury is only one play away. You’re throwing computer tablets on the sidelines again, even when you’re winning. What’s with all the rage, Tom?  

I will admit that your return to the NFL is an awe-inspiring display of age-defying guts. Millions have cheered your return. And millions will be clamouring for you to play until you’re carted off in a wheelchair. 

Because they really don’t care about you or your career, Tom. They just want to be entertained.  

And you do entertain – brilliantly. Don't let anyone tell you differently!

But more than anything, I want you to have a happy, healthy second half of life, whenever that might begin. To start it off right, might I suggest you give Gisele a call?

Stop fearing Russia's defeat

 

When western leaders start worrying about what happens when Russia “loses” the war in Ukraine, I get concerned. 

This is what it has come to: The strange, misguided belief that Ukraine is winning a war because it did not topple in the first week of invasion. The West, namely Germany and France, is now stricken with fear that Vladimir Putin is being “humiliated”. Ukraine, which has had one third of its population displaced, faces a 30% reduction in its labour force, and has lost over 20% of its territory to Russia – could tip the scales with limited Western support and somehow “win” this war. 

What would winning even constitute? Reclaiming a portion of the land that was recently conquered by Russian forces? Rebuilding cities that have been utterly destroyed by Russian artillery? Stopping the onslaught of missiles that can be fired by Russia at any time (40 missiles were fired at various cities across Ukraine only yesterday)? Is that victory, in the eyes of the West? 

The West continues to shake in its boots, worried that Putin will extend the war to NATO territory with a depleted military and an understanding that any nuclear attack will result in a devastating counter-attack. 

In the meantime, Russia continues to terrorize the whole of the Ukrainian population. In the occupied area of Melitopol, public executions are being considered to deter Ukrainian resistance. Missing Ukrainian persons number in the thousands – family members have no idea where their loved ones have been taken. 

The mayor of Mykolaiv, the last bastion of defense before the Ukrainian-controlled port city of Odessa, has now told everyone to leave the city. This city of 480,000 was already at half its population. Odessa, the last port to be controlled by Ukraine, cannot ship any grain due to Russia’s occupation of the Black Sea. 

The world waits with baited breath as many countries dependent on this grain face starvation, and most likely, political upheaval. 

I have never been less of a pacifist. Although I believe war is destructive, and peace should always be the first “line of defense” against hate and killing, there is no other way to defend against ruthless dictators like Putin than through force.  

Ukraine needs weapons – heavy weaponry that will deter Russia from ever considering another attack. There is no other way. 

I am almost certain that this will eventually turn into Putin’s own Afghanistan, which will ultimately lead to guerilla warfare, endless Russian lives lost, and eventually, political upheaval. But it could take years. Occupiers tend to defend their occupation until the very end (see both Soviet and US occupations of Afghanistan for similar results).  

In the meantime, we can only watch. We will go on vacation with our friend’s daughter from Kyiv, who is now living with us. We will visit my sister-in-law and her husband from southern Ukraine who are now living in a one-bedroom apartment with their son (thankfully he immigrated years ago). We will have supper tonight with a woman who is from my wife’s home city. Every one of them is living from a suitcase they took from her homes. Every one of them is hoping they have a home to go back to. 

They like Canada, but Ukraine is home. They want to live with autonomy and dignity – not under Russian threat. 

The impact of this war is global, as most of us now understand. We turn off the “bad news” at our own peril. The greatest risk is for Ukraine to lose this war.