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.