2022 – My Name is Sydney Jo

Ukraine

We don’t just hear about it. We live it.

Five weeks ago, after much manoeuvring along Ukraine’s borders, and constant worldwide deliberations regarding intent, Russian invaded Ukraine. It continues as I write, with Ukraine bravely fighting back under the leadership of the dynamic President Volodymyr Zelensky.

World conflict has changed over my lifetime, even considering that I was born long after the two “great” wars. I remember being glued to the TV (… not my computer, and decades before my phone…) watching the 1990 Gulf War as “live” audiovisuals were fed to us. Since then, tactics in the field have advanced exponentially alongside computer technology.

But the biggest change? We’re seeing war as it happens. Right now. We watched the lead-up, the first movements, and now the ongoing conflict itself. We see what’s happening on the ground as well as the international interplay. And we get to feel how it affects our own cushy lives in Canada.

Satellites and internet systems bring the news. Journalists beam hourly images in real time. We see the faces of the defenders as they defend, and close-up views of families as they hug, weep, and leave their fighting men behind. We learn about the immediate realities of food, water, medications running out.

We watch Zelensky’s daily videos, directed not to just his own people but to us, even specific countries to ask for help. We’re privy to how nations react and engage in response. The sanctions they’re imposing. The dilemmas they’re facing. We read about negotiation proceedings conducted under an umbrella of nuclear weapon anxiety.

There’s propaganda too – as we follow experts deciding which news is real and which is fabricated. We make choices about who to believe, who to follow, how to help.

These are the war headlines. And yet… and yet… we still see news about sports championships, stock market woes, gasoline woes, local headlines. We still order online, shop in well-stocked stores, eat in comfortable restaurants. I still go for my daily walks, wander around the gardens waiting for spring plants to poke up. The sun is shining, the air is getting warmer. It’s all very, very strange.

Four million Ukrainians have exited Ukraine. Four million. We watch as countries try to manage them at a time when space is already jammed with those from other conflicts.

Zelensky said in his daily address to his people, and to us, yesterday:

“When a nation is defending itself in a war of annihilation, when it is a question of life or death of millions, there are no unimportant things…. And everyone can contribute to a victory for all. Some with weapons in their hands. Some by working. And some with a warm word and help at the right moment. Do everything you can so we stand together in this war for our freedom, for our independence.”

Even with all the detail, it’s really hard to grasp.

Dolly

I don’t know why Dolly jumped into my head recently… but thinking about her made me consider a lot of other stuff as well.

Dolly was a Finnish Dorset sheep born in 1996 in Scotland, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. It was accomplished using cells originally destined for research on milk proteins in sheep. (For a fascinating description of the entire endeavour, check out this site.) Dolly actually had three mothers: her surrogate shown here, one that provided an egg with its nucleus removed, and one that provided a different nucleus with DNA inside – from a mammary gland. To honour the world of mammary glands, she was named after Dolly Parton.

“Dolly” was stunning worldwide news. I was 40 at the time and caught up in the many discussions about where science, and humanity, was headed. Recently, as I reviewed the story, my thoughts shifted to other significant scientific advances in the same realm, from DNA to stem cells.

Young Female Olympians: Are They Reaching for the Impossible?

In high school I competed in gymnastics, spending countless early-morning and after-school hours practicing and practicing and practicing. I never won anything but I loved everything about it. More importantly, I learned vast amounts about muscles and agility and the wondrous sensation of being supremely fit. I also learned about dedication. It gave me a different vantage point for watching other-worldly skills at the international level, where already unbelievable human achievements still get better and better.

A medal at the Olympics is the pinnacle of achievement. In 1976, at the age of 21, I watched 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci of Romania, with her tiny 4’11”, 83 lb frame, score several perfect “10”s in Montreal. I have since learned that she continued as a celebrity in her own country for years – but was never allowed to travel internationally (though others close to her could). There have also been written rumblings about poor treatment as a young athlete. Nadia defected in 1989 and made it to the USA where she has happily lived ever since.

Is the End Nigh?

COVID-19

We usually drop the “19” these days: we are instead in 2022, with a fourth wave, rampant transmission, spiralling cases and a sense that we’ll never shake free.

It seems kind of “wrong” to be pondering topics from my past when I’m sitting here in the middle of a global crisis that no one alive has experienced before – living inside history one day at a time.

I’m Back

I see that my last entry here was 7 months ago, as Canada neared the end of the third wave of COVID-19. Summer had arrived, vaccinations were on the rise, and we were all feeling optimistic, cautiously socializing and enjoying a warm-weather modicum of normality. My summer got hectic and my writing time greatly curtailed. It became tough making space for it again.

Today we’re in the thick of a super-transmissible fourth wave that no one expected. Nevertheless, vaccinations are high and active illness low, so I feel confident that it’s the last gasp of this awful pandemic.

It is also nearly the two-year anniversary of when we met two of our sons and their families in Texas for a vacation. I clearly recall chatting about the news of the day which included the detection of a new coronavirus in China… and, well, the rest is history.