Nancy Drew, Jazz, & The War on Ukraine

This morning I found myself thinking about Nancy Drew. I'd just "published" my blog entry about some of the differences between the original ND novels and the revised versions that came 30 years later, so it was pretty fresh in my mind. And I care about Nancy Drew. More than is seemly, perhaps, for an old man, but not in any prurient fashion. (Though it occurs to me that she would make a good character for a sequel to Lost Girls should Alan Moore ever decide that such a thing is needed.) My interest in Nancy stems primarily from two things: (1) the fact that I wanted to read her books when I was young, having been enticed by those mysterious cover illustrations, but didn't because they were clearly Girl Books, and (2) my discovery of the radical nature of the revised versions, which essentially razed the original books to the ground and built different structures on the same land. 

But I care much, much more about what's happening in Ukraine right now. So (1) why am I not writing more about that and (2) why AM I writing about Nancy Drew?

I had a little talk with myself about that.

One part of it is that I feel that I know so little about the Ukraine situation that I can add nothing to a discussion of it. I could say, "I am on the side of Ukraine!" But that doesn't really mean anything, does it? That doesn't in any way help the Ukrainians as they try to withstand the fierce blast of the Russian attack. 

Another part of it is that I feel so overwhelmed by the War on Ukraine that I really don't want to think about it any more than I already am. I'm spending a lot of time every day watching the news, reading the news, looking at commentaries...and it's making me feel really anxious, even panicky. That doesn't do anyone any good, least of all me. My crippled heart doesn't do well with any kind of stress these days, so emotional anxiety often causes me intense physical pain. I'd prefer not to die because of Rachel Maddow. 

But as we were talking, Self pointed out that once upon a time I had given my son my 3 Rules For Relationships. The second one was, "You're never fighting about what you think you're fighting about." *

And that made me think about the Ukraine War in a different way.

Maybe I'm not writing about Nancy Drew when I'm writing about Nancy Drew. Maybe I'm not writing about Jazz Music when I'm writing about Jazz Music.

In fact, as I wander down this poorly lit path, it occurs to me that there is some common ground in my writings about Nancy Drew and Jazz: in both cases, I'm bemoaning the fact that something which I consider to be precious has been lost, and no one seems to know or care. So I'm writing in the hopes that someone Out There will read my words and be stirred to care. Maybe even spread that idea to someone else.

That's the reason I still have a Twitter account, too. I've found that by posting snippets and links to Songs of Innocence & Experience on Twitter that I can sometimes direct traffic to the blog. Case in point, last night I posted a Tweet about the Ukraine on Fire documentary. In short order it had 1,292 hits. That's a lot of hits for a guy like me. And some of those people clicked on the link to Songs of Innocence & Experience. 

So...I don't know enough about Ukraine's political history to say who is responsible for Russia's attack. Obviously Putin has some of that responsibility...maybe all of it, but I doubt that. The only way you can prop up that thought is with the buttress, "Well, he's crazy, after all." And I doubt very much that that is ever the motivation for war. Noam Chomsky and others I've read recently suggest that it has a lot to do with the way that the United States and NATO have (1) encroached on territories adjacent to Russia, thus causing Putin to feel that he was being boxed in and threatened, & (2) failed to support Ukraine in ways that might have prevented this attack...such as stating forthrightly that Ukraine was not going to become a NATO partner. In essence, to believe that all of this devastation is because Putin is crazy is to assert that the United States of America is a pure & saintly nation which only wants to help others. I truly wish that that was a fact, but it is clearly not so.

Anyway...it's a much more complex situation that CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etcetera would have us believe, obviously, but for me it comes down to this: something precious is in danger of becoming lost, and I want to do something to prevent that from happening. 

But I have no idea what to do.

* If you have a need to know ** , the first is "Say what you want" ***, and the third is "It's never over when you think it's over."

** Every time I hear this phrase I remember one of my U.S. Military Intelligence buddies (I think it was Sergeant Rod, who was a clever guy) singing, "Please release me, let me go, / 'Cause I don't have a need to know. / TS is a waste on me, / So release me, just let me go."

*** To date, over the course of 7 major romantic relationships and about a dozen deep friendships, I have not met a woman who adhered to this policy. In fact, when I was talking to one of my best female friends and she was bemoaning the fact that her boyfriend wasn't giving her what she wanted, I asked her, "Did you tell him what you want?" Her response pretty much sums up my experiences of this ilk: "He should know!"